No One Needs To Know
by SevenDevils12
Summary: Fourteen year-old Eileen has a secret that she keeps hidden from everyone she encounters. As she finds shelter with Lenny and his group of survivors, for just a moment she feels solace. But it's not long before bandits attack the camp, and soon her secret could threaten to tear the group apart... (Please read it, it would be much appreciated ;))
1. Chapter 1: The Lone Ranger

**CHAPTER ONE**

Scuffling feet crept past the door at an agonisingly slow pace, the sickening groans of their owners loud and clear. They got quieter and quieter, until they were just… gone. Fourteen year-old Eileen hesitated before shooting out of the doorway where she had been hiding. There were most likely more just around the corner. They had a keen sense of smell, so it wouldn't be long before they come back and found their prey. Regardless of whether or not there were others nearby, she had to move quickly, or they would make the decision for her.

She peaked around the door, ready to jump back inside if she spotted a walker. Looking both ways, she was relieved to see that there were none in her sight. Quietly sneaking out, she headed down the alleyway that she had gotten stuck in earlier, thankful that she was able to escape it at last. She had been there for nearly an hour, because whenever one pack disappeared, another would appear, sniffing around for lunch. The smell was awful, thanks to the rotting corpse in the corner, where a man. But as distasteful as it was, it had helped to shield her scent, so she was somewhat grateful for that.

She knew not to walk down the street, as she was an easy target. As easy as it was to think that she could just run if she saw one, it was more difficult than that. They were persistent and had a lot of stamina. They would follow her until she was too exhausted to stand up, and then they would gleefully tear into her flesh. The last part was a chilling memory for Eileen, who had seen some awful things since the outbreak. She was keen not to become a meal, so stuck to the side streets and back gardens.

A small picket fence stood in front of her, coated in spattered blood. The owner had clearly reanimated and scuttled off somewhere, but she still approached with caution, kitchen knife at the ready. A quick survey of the immediate area taught her that she was alone for now, so she had time to carefully climb over the fence without injuring herself. That was the worst thing you could do in the apocalypse: injure yourself. You were as good as dead, because it slowed you down. Another chilling reminder for Eileen resurfaced.

After safely vaulting the fence, she continued across the fences separating the various back gardens. She was back on a side street after vaulting her fifth fence, considering taking shelter in one of the houses, and then reconsidering straight away. She would be more vulnerable in a house, where there was less space to defend herself. Outside was more convenient. More space to run and fight.

Coincidentally, the pack of walkers that she had escaped earlier just appeared around the corner. That was one thing inside was good for: hiding. But right now she was out in the open, with nowhere to duck behind, so she found eight walkers staring at her, licking their lips.

Run or fight? Definitely run.

She took off, jogging down a back alley with them in hot pursuit. She couldn't sprint because her energy would be depleted quickly and she would be caught pretty quickly. Her only hope was to run for a while and then quickly find a hiding place that they would not notice. At that moment, it was not as simple as it sounded. They were matching her speed, and another pack was loitering around the entrance to the only other side street she could see. She had a few seconds before they spotted her and gave chase, and there was only one way that she could go: the road.

It was common survivor knowledge that the road was off limits, but she had no other choice. She could only hope that there was some sort of escape route waiting for her. That hope was diminished when she nearly ran into another pack lingering in the middle of the road. Disoriented and tired, they were slow to react, giving her time to dodge past them. But more packs of walkers started appearing, blocking off escape routes. Soon she was cornered by dozens, forced to enter one of the houses. A walker was hot on her heels, so she slammed the door in his face, causing him to fall backwards and trip up several of them. It was a knock-on effect; the other walkers were stuck behind their fallen comrades, so none of them could move forwards and pursue Eileen. This gave her plenty of time to slip out the back door and make her way back to the side streets…

A walker shot out from behind a door and launched itself at her. It was male, with an average build and soaked in fresh blood, on the teeth and clothes. He knocked her to the ground, and she slammed her head against the wall. The sudden attack had caused her to let go of the knife, which slid across the wooden floor and stopped by a coffee table maybe two metres away. The walker climbed on top of her, trying to bite her. She quickly grabbed his head with both hands, trying to force him away. Despite the plague having weakened his body, he was still relatively strong, so Eileen struggled to hold him back. She pushed with her feet, and threw him off her.

She dived for the knife, locked her fingers around it and twisted around, just in time as he lunged for her again. This time she was ready, and she plunged the knife into his forehead. He ceased movement and sagged slightly, collapsing to the floor and blood leaked out from around the knife.

But her victory was short-lived. The walkers had found their way inside and three of them appeared in the doorway. She had no time to retrieve the knife as she darted for the back door.

Thirty-seven walkers followed the defenceless, unarmed girl, groaning in pleasure as they prepared for lunch.


	2. Chapter 2: Saviour

The walker was busy scavenging in rubbish bins, looking around for any tiny scraps of food. Despite the plague having severely damaged the majority of the brain, little things remained, like rifling through rubbish to look for food even though you know there isn't any. The walker was about to move on to look for some more when a girl ran past. Young and fresh, prime for the taking. A large pack of fellow walkers followed shortly afterwards, appearing round the corner and disappearing behind another fairly quickly for a pack. She followed her comrades, as did others nearby. Every other walker who spotted the crowd joined the hunt, and the pack slowly turned into a swarm of vicious cannibals, all chasing one goal: Eileen.

* WD * WD *

She didn't stand a chance. Hiding from her predators was not going to work, given that she had a steadily increasing number of walkers getting closer every second as she got more and more tired. It was like she was some sort of magnet, because thirty-seven had increased to maybe seventy within five minutes. She couldn't keep up this chase for much longer: she felt like keeling over from exhaustion more so every time she took a painful step. She had twisted her ankle when she had been attacked in the house, so she would be reduced to a limp soon. The situation was dire. She entered the next back alley, going insane from the repetitive cycle; back alley to back alley, garden to garden. She turned another corner, spotted another pack of walkers. They were about to spot her and she had nowhere to run. _There must be another way, girl! Think!_

Suddenly, a strong, rough hand shot around her mouth preventing her from screaming. Before she could lash out a deep voice whispered in her ear. "Keep quiet." He dragged her into a house and quietly shut the door, while still holding her still. For what seemed like ages, they stood there while the familiar scuffling sound of a hundred and forty feet passed by, until it was silent. She thought he was going to let go then, but he spoke again:  
"I'm going to let you go now. If you scream, I will leave you here, and trust me, you will not survive. I can take you to safety. Do you understand? Nod your head."  
She nodded.  
"Good."

He released his grip over her mouth, and she breathed in heavily, feeling like she hadn't been able to do that in a long time.  
"Thank you," she gasped through short breaths.  
"You're very welcome." Now the danger was gone (or at least, gone for the time being), he sounded friendly and consoling. She got a good look at him. He was maybe in his early thirties with a rugged, handsome face and fair, curly hair. He was well-built with defined arms and a slim figure. Despite the situation, Eileen felt her inner girl giggle at her attractive saviour.  
"What's your name?" he asked nicely, which she nearly didn't hear because she was too busy gawping.  
"Eileen."  
"I'm Lenny. I've been tracking you for the last few blocks. Now come on, my car is just around the block."  
Getting into cars with strangers was not usually appropriate, but under the circumstances it could be understood.

* WD * WD *

"Why has he been gone for so long?"  
"He's probably just taking a bit longer to fetch some supplies, dear. You don't need to worry."

Rita sat with Karen in one of the tent, comforting her as she worried herself over Lenny's whereabouts. While she was fine with telling Karen that there was nothing to worry about, she herself was worrying. Lenny was never usually gone for more than an hour. He had lectured the group on not spending too much time in the city, because it was very dangerous. Now he had been gone for more than three hours and it wasn't just Karen fretting about him.

"I should never have let him go," cried Karen, seeming to have not heard Rita's reassuring words. "For all we know he could be dead already, some walker's lunch."  
"Don't go saying that, dear. He's a resourceful man. He just wants to fetch some extra supplies so he doesn't have to go back as often. Isn't that more likely than him being dead?"  
Too late she realised that was a stupid question. Of course it was more likely that Lenny was dead, but Karen smiled anyway, taking Rita by the hand.  
"Thank you for trying to comfort me. It's very nice of you."  
"Well, I can't let you wallow in self-pity, can I? Especially when we both know that whatever the danger, Lenny will survive."  
Thankfully, the conversation didn't have to continue as there was the sound of a car approaching. Karen jumped up, doing the duty of asking the obvious question: "Is that Lenny?" Before Rita could open her mouth to reply, Karen had darted out of the tent and into the main campsite. Rita followed, grateful to have escaped the awkward conversation.

Indeed, it was Lenny. He got out of the little pickup truck and entered the camp… with a new face. A teenage girl got out of the car with him, spattered with blood and dirt. She looked knackered, ready to drop at any moment. She stood there silently, waiting for Lenny to speak.

"Who's that?" asked Karen, speaking for everyone. The entire camp had gathered around now, a small group of nine people staring at Lenny, and then redirecting their gaze at the girl.

"I found her being chased by a huge group of them, so I tracked her for a bit and got her to safety. Her name's Eileen." There was silence for a bit, as they all took in the news. From their deadpan expression, it seemed that they were quite negative about the new arrival. After all, it was another mouth to feed.

Eileen instantly felt uncomfortable in the camp. Regardless of Lenny's authority in the camp – if he had any at all – he had still brought a burden back with him. This was not going to go down well.


	3. Chapter 3: Tough Old Bird

Rita watched in disappointment as Karen questioned Lenny. She hadn't even said "Hi", instead launching into a bombardment of accusations. Others joined in, shouting loudly all at the same time so that their words were incomprehensible. Throughout all of this the young girl was standing there awkwardly, looking down at her feet to avoid eye contact. That's when she knew what she had to do.

"Enough!" she bellowed with fury, and everyone went dead silent. She was always the quiet one, never getting involved in the arguments, just lurking in the background. Naturally, everyone was stunned, including the girl, who most likely assumed that an old woman like her would not hold much authority in the camp. She may be sixty four but that didn't make her inferior to the younger members of the camp. She stood in front of the group with her back to Lenny and the girl.

"Regardless of what you think about this, now is not the time to be arguing. They are both clearly very tired and could do with some rest, so they don't need you shouting at them right now." The majority of the people looked a little guilty, except for Victor and Calvin, who were looking angry that she had bothered to open her mouth. Victor had always thought of himself as superior to everyone in the camp, regularly undermining Lenny's decisions. How his wife Jessica put up with him was beyond Rita. But Calvin was just a lapdog really, only nineteen, he viewed Victor as the real leader of the camp, but he was the only one who listened to the bully. Thankfully, they decided against speaking out against Rita, so she used the silence to quickly speak to Lenny.

"Thank you for going out there, Lenny," she said kindly, patting his wrist sympathetically. He appreciated the gesture, but did not speak. "I guess you're probably going to want some rest, so I'll take this young girl off your hands for now." She turned to the girl. "Now sweetie, you can share with me. What's your name?"

"Eileen," the girl replied weakly. Her voice was hoarse, she probably needed some water.  
"Okay then, Eileen. Let's go get you some water, you must be parched."  
Eileen was happy to escape the furious glares of the other campers, so she followed the nice lady to the tent.

* WD * WD *

It had been a few hours since Eileen had arrived at the camp, and people were starting to regret their initial reactions to her arrival. Several of the campers came by the tent she was now sharing with Rita, and offered their apologies. So far a few people had come by: Brian, the elderly man with his teenage daughter Juno, Jessica, Victor's wife, and Karen, who stayed for the longest amount of time.

It hadn't been too difficult to learn everyone's names. So far, there were ten people excluding her: Lenny, Karen, Sam, the shy guy who seemed kind of nice, Brian, Juno, Phillip, the little boy who hadn't been there when she arrived, Victor, the horrible forty year-old man who had this irritating habit of sniffing when someone said something he disagreed with, Jessica, Rita, and that creepy teenager Calvin. She had been expecting more people when Lenny had told her about the camp on the way there, but she guessed he had been definitely right about how badly the outbreak had gotten some people. Like he had said, she was very lucky to be alive after her run-in with the infected earlier. The idea of going back out into that wasteland frightened her, so she planned to make herself uncomfortable at Lenny's camp.

Was Lenny the leader? She couldn't really tell who was otherwise. While she hadn't seen him issue orders out to people or have people call him "Sir" or "Captain", the way that Rita had defended him seemed to be how someone would defend a leader. Eileen hoped he was the leader, because she couldn't bear the thought of that Victor being leader. She had listened to him have conversations with some of the others and he sounded truly vile. But she hadn't spoken to him personally yet, and she didn't intend to. She was comfortable in the tent with Rita.

She had been the tent for about an hour straight now, either trying to sleep or just sitting there sipping water. Rita had briefly gone off to speak to Karen and would be back later. Until then, she didn't know how to occupy her time. She was thinking about the events of the day when she heard footsteps approaching. The flap that was the entrance to the tent was pulled back and it was not Rita, but a small boy staring at her.

This must be Phillip. He was very scrawny and fairly short, with innocent blue eyes and a pale face. He looked very shy, and he had clearly fought with himself to come and talk to her. Without either of them saying a word, he entered the tent and plonked himself down on the floor, remaining silent. Eileen chose to break the silence.

"Hello, you must be Phillip," she said with a forced smile. If she acted moody and unhappy, he would get uncomfortable and leave. It looked like he was struggling enough to just be around her, so she tried to be as nice as possible. "I'm Eileen."

"Hi, Eileen." No emotion showed in his face. He was completely blank. "You're new."  
"Yes, I am. I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone here." That was a lie and even Phillip could tell it was, despite only being about twelve. He didn't reply though, simply continuing with his unnerving stare. Eileen chose once again to break the silence. "How do you li—"

"You'll probably be sharing a tent with me soon," he interrupted.  
"Why is that?"  
"Well, it's not like Rita's going to survive much longer. Old people always die first."

The coldness of this boy was worrying. He must have been through some sort of traumatic experience to be so blunt about death at his age. But Eileen did not express her shock, merely continuing the conversation. "You never know, she seems like a tough old bird."

"The last old person who lived here lasted a week. The walkers got him. Anyway, I'll be happy to share with you when Rita dies. Goodnight." Before another word could be said, he got up and left quickly.

It took a while for Eileen to process what just happened. To be told by a twelve year old that the woman she was sharing a tent with was going to be dead soon was bound to unsettle her slightly. It was then that she realised just how bad the outbreak was. The walkers left their mark. Before they came along, that little boy had been innocent and sweet. They had turned him into a deeply disturbing human being. Camp was not going to be so fun after all.


	4. Chapter 4: Sleepless Nights

Jessica stared at Victor, sound asleep. She wanted to join him, but she couldn't do it. It was difficult to get back to sleep after she had gotten up an hour ago to throw up in a bush. After that she had just sat there in the corner of the tent, eyes fixated on her husband. It didn't feel right to cuddle up next to him. Too much had changed since they had gotten married. He had become hurtful and verbally abusive. The outbreak had almost been good timing for him – she was about to tell him that she wanted a divorce.

She had always loved Victor throughout the marriage, and she still did, but it was too hard to be around him. He knew how to cause a scene and make her uncomfortable, but the worst thing was that he scared her. He had never hit her – he wasn't like that – but once they had had an argument and he had lost it, chucking things around the house. It had taken her two hours to get the kitchen back to its original state, and she had bought a new microwave, as the last one had a frying pan hanging out of the broken glass.

Despite the tension between them, she knew she had to tell him what was happening. Just – not yet. She had to encourage herself some more, and soon before it became more obvious. It wasn't easy to tell him something that could ruin everything they had worked for to survive. But it had to be done.

Sick of staring at Victor, Jessica exited the tent quietly, and went for a walk around the perimeter of the camp. Everybody was asleep in their tents and there were no walkers that would suspect to look for food up here, so she had a rare peace at that moment. But she couldn't relax. Her problem was driving her crazy, and she didn't know how she would be able to cope with it. It could kill her, and leave Victor alone in a camp with people who despised him. True, it was down to his own actions that made him a hated person, but she didn't want to leave him there. Without her, he might do something stupid like attempt to 'overrule' Lenny's decisions. He was that kind of person.

She took a seat on a bench, overlooking the city. The camp was on a steep hill, so there were some nice views to appreciate. It looked so beautiful, like a mirage. It was anything but beautiful. It was a death trap down there, where she planned to never go back, although it was inevitable that the camp would have to be evacuated eventually. The walkers would find it at some point, and nobody wanted to be there when it happened.

Her eyes drooped, and she gratefully succumbed to the realms of sleep. It was the first time in days.

* WD * WD *

The sounds and the smell were familiar. Groaning, lips smacking the sides of mouths, chewing. The smell of decay, rotten food, body odour…

Jessica opened her eyes.

A walker slouched over her, chewing on her coat.

She screamed as loud as she could.

She shoved the walker as hard as she could before it could react, sending it tumbling down the hill, but it wasn't alone. Walkers were all around her, heading towards the tents where people were just rousing after hearing her scream.

"WALKERS!" She bellowed as loud as she could, and the tents rustled. But then many walkers turned towards her, and too late she realised that she was surrounded, with nowhere to run.

Some got lucky, as their tents were further away from the approaching pack, but others were trapped as walkers tried to enter their tents. Brian shouted out as Juno screamed, and there was the sound of a gunshot. Lenny and Sam appeared, brandishing handguns and dropping walkers, but there were dozens and dozens of them. There was no way they could stop all of them by themselves. Slowly, more people appeared, holding weapons of some sort. Calvin was right behind Victor, hacking away at the pack that slowly invaded tents. So far, it seemed that only Brian and Juno had been caught.

Jessica was no longer able to worry about everyone else because the walkers started to limp towards her, and with horror she found no weapon in her pocket. She had left her coat with the handgun in in the tent. She was defenceless against the walkers.

She saw an opening and dashed past two walkers, but was then blocked off by another. She ended up weaving through them, running away from the camp where no one could protect her. Through her heavy breathing, she could hear gunshots and screams, making her want to turn around, run back and help; despite knowing she could not help at all.

She started to descend the hill slightly, where no walkers blocked her path. Now that the walkers were also descending, they moved quicker, regaining some of their stamina. Her only solution was to hide. An abandoned greenhouse loomed over her and she didn't hesitate to go inside. It was her only chance. Two dozen walkers followed her inside, sure that they had their prey trapped now.

* WD * WD *

Eileen could only watch in horror as walkers steadily took the camp, tearing into survivors. She had heard Juno's scream. Jessica was nowhere to be seen, and there was the horrible clicking sound of Sam's and Lenny's guns, empty of bullets. And the walkers kept coming. Already, people were abandoning defence and running in the opposite direction, leaving less people to fight against the walkers, who were easily winning the battle. Calvin shoved past her and sprinted down the hill, followed by Karen and a crying Phillip. Then she felt cold hands grip her shoulders, that horrible groaning sound, and she was pulled to the ground.


	5. Chapter 5: Aftermath

It was an onslaught of bodies, storming the camp with confidence. When Sam heard his gun click empty and heard people running away behind him, he knew it was over. The walkers had won. However, he wasn't going to give up without a fight. His gun was still a useful weapon as he beat at the heads of approaching walkers. But his arm grew tired quickly and he was forced to take steps back or he would end up being swarmed. Soon enough he was out of the camp, walking backwards down the steep hill as they pursued him. All it took was a slight lump in the grass and he tripped, sent sprawling down the hill at dangerous speed. He landed in a heap, but at least he was on level ground, and the walkers were now far away, struggling to catch up.

He had no choice. He couldn't go back and defend now. With the site of Calvin sprinting up the road with Karen and Phillip, he got up wearily and followed, abandoning the others in favour of survival.

* WD * WD *

Eileen lashed out quickly, hitting her attacker on the thigh, who recoiled slightly giving her time to roll away. It was not enough time, as the walker recovered and lunged at her, causing the pair to roll repeatedly until they stopped against one of the tents. Unfortunately, the walker landed on top, so she quickly had to grab it (a male) by the throat to stop it sinking its teeth into her neck. It fought back with intensity, gradually getting closer towards her. Her arms struggled under the weight of the walker on top of her, and she knew she could not hold on much longer. It was overpowering her. With her head turned down, she could see Lenny and Victor lashing out at walkers, viciously clubbing them with rocks. But she couldn't watch any longer as the walker increased pressure and she had to concentrate even more. She tried to call out but it was sitting on her chest, constricting her oxygen. If it didn't bite her, it would end up crushing her to death.

Suddenly, her arms gave in and the walker fell onto her with crushing force, knocking all of the breath out of her. This was the end for her, with no one to save her this time…

There was a gunshot and the walker went limp, collapsing onto her weakly.

For a moment she just lay there, staring into the sky. She must be dead, surely. What happened? Lenny was out of bullets, did Victor even have a gun? She pushed the body off of her and saw people she didn't recognise, shooting at a pack of walkers that seemed much smaller than before. She clocked the mass of corpses on the ground. It was definitely much smaller than before. She got up and found Lenny, Victor, and six people she didn't recognise staring intently at her. Exhaustion got to her and she blacked out.

* WD * WD *

The walkers were gone, but they had left their mark. Juno was dead, and most of the group were gone, having ran for safety. All that remained of the group were Eileen, Lenny, Victor and Brian (who refused to leave the tent where his daughter's body lay) and the new arrivals, who certainly looked like a good group of fighters. They all looked athletic and had proven their capability in a fracas already, but there was something about them that was intimidating. Even while they sat on logs in a circle chatting, they didn't seem quite right. Eileen was quick to judge sometimes but these people didn't look like the trustworthy type. But that was the least of everyone's concerns right now.

Victor had gone silent, no longer making smug comments or trying to impress others with his knowledge of survival comments. He just stared at the ground, fighting back tears. He had wanted to go and find Jessica, but Lenny had persuaded him not to, as it was still dark and all he would achieve would be to get himself killed. Victor decided to accept Lenny's words because after all, his wife was out there too.

Eileen was worried about Rita. She hadn't been seen running away with Calvin, Sam, Karen and Phillip, and no one had seen her body either. She must have run off on her own, so she probably wouldn't survive long. To add to her fears, Jessica hadn't been seen either. Everyone had heard her scream, but she had been lost somewhere in the middle of the pack, and her body was missing too.

Phillip's words haunted her. His timing to come up to her and tell her she was going to die was somewhat coincidental to the walker attack only a few short hours later. Maybe this had happened before: a random attack on the camp with heavy casualties. Well, it wasn't just Rita that was likely to die now. Five others were still in danger as well.

She heard the supposed leader of the group speak and she was pulled out of her deep thoughts. The man's name was Hugh, and he looked like someone who could kill you before you had time to react. Heavily muscled in the arms, chest and thighs and cradling a large crossbow with a plentiful supply of arrows, he was a terrifying presence. His voice was stern and deep, and very devoid of emotion. While the others were conversing with each other, he had remained quiet, staring in to the distance.

"Now," he said formally, "I know we spoke earlier and we're grateful for you letting us stay for the night, but we were considering making a deal with you."

He hadn't spoken to anyone about this: it was his decisions. But his group showed no qualms about it, neither registering shock nor uncertainty, but more interest than anything. He addressed Lenny, instantly recognising him as the group leader, for Victor was weakly staring at the ground and Eileen was still, in his eyes, a little girl. Lenny was the only option.

"I understand that some of your group went missing. We were thinking that we could help you find them, in exchange for some of your food supplies. We would take turns to scout the immediate area, and gradually increase our search radius every time a search comes up with nothing. It could take a while, so we might need to sleep here a few nights too."

Victor did not object, because it was hope that his wife was not a walker's meal, and Eileen didn't either, because deep down she knew that this was her fault. The walkers Lenny had saved her from before they had come to the camp had clearly spotted them again and followed the car up the hill. That was why it had taken them so long to attack, because they had had to walk so far. Eileen knew this because she had recognised the walker that had nearly got her earlier. It was one of the first to enter the house just after her run-in with the walker she had stabbed. As its teeth narrowly approached her neck, she had realised it was her fault, so she would take any opportunity to find the remaining survivors. But it was Lenny's call.

He considered it for a while, sitting in silence as everyone watched him eagerly. Finally he spoke.

"Tomorrow morning you can start helping us look for survivors. You can have breakfast here tomorrow, but that's all the food you get until we find one of our group."

They got up and shook hands, and then agreed that it was time to go to sleep. Everyone needed it.

* WD * WD *

Jessica had made a huge mistake going into the greenhouse. Her hope that she could sneak out the back had been turned into horror: there was only one door. She had just walked into a trap.

Her instant thought when she found out was to just smash through the glass, but it was very thick and all she had were weak pot plants to use as projectiles as weapons. The dark was both good and bad for her. The good was that the walkers could only spot her if she was really close. The bad: she could only spot them if they were really close.

She took shelter behind under wooden table with steel legs, where she had little hiding space. She remained rigid so that she could hear them coming and so that they wouldn't hear her. Their feet passed her, stumbling forward with the unforgettable sound of their groaning, a compilation of all of their groaning to make one huge, sickening groan. Of course it was of hunger, but it must have been pain too. The infection must have been excruciating to live with every day for the rest of your miserable life. For just a moment Jessica pitied them, but then she remembered that they were trying to find her so they could eat her. It didn't take much to go back to hating them.

To her relief, they seemed to be walking straight past her hiding place, so she got ready to run. She wouldn't have much time to make a dash for the exit. She waited for them all to pass her, but knowing that that was not going to happen, she took a risk and left her hiding space, sprinting forward loudly. She felt a walker reach for her coat but she was past it before it could get a good grip. She felt something fall out of her pocket, but it wasn't important anymore. What mattered was getting out of there.

She reached the greenhouse door without fail, and disappeared into the night.


	6. Chapter 6: Disbanded

"This was a bad idea," groaned Karen as her stomach rumbled. "We should have stayed at the camp."  
"And then what? Be torn apart?"

Sam was quickly losing patience with Karen. She complained almost all the time, and while Sam had been sympathetic towards her – given that her husband could be dead – he could no longer make excuses to put up with her. She didn't even seem bothered about Lenny, or anyone else for that matter.

Karen shot a filthy look at Sam, but did not argue back because she accepted that he was pretty much the leader now. The only other option apart from her was Calvin, who was too busy crying whenever he saw an abandoned car or a corpse on the ground. And of course, Phillip was out of the question, due to his age and his emotional state, which was very much similar to Calvin's. Sam was the only one who could take charge.

It had been a long night. The four had deserted the camp and unintentionally headed for the highway. The journey had exhausted them and so they agreed to take shelter on a double decker bus, with Sam, Calvin and Karen taking turns to keep watch. They had been lucky to survive until morning, but they had no food, no weapons and nowhere to sleep safely. Going back to the camp was out of the question, and the walkers could be following their scent, so they had to keep moving.

They stayed on the highway, cautious about entering the city. They all knew that there would be plenty of food to scavenge, but it was an incredible risk. The walkers could swarm them quickly before they realised what was happening. The only option they could think of was to wade through the huge traffic jam and leave the city. No one objected. They set off shortly after waking up, blissfully unaware of the approaching pack, their eyes locked on their prey.

* WD * WD *

"Come on, Brian. You can't stay in there forever." Lenny was worried about Brian. He had stayed in the tent with Juno all night, refusing to come out for food or water. While it was important for him to grieve over his daughter, he had to come out eventually. Lenny's main concern was that it been at least twelve hours since she had died. She was going to reanimate soon, and it would not help Brian to see his dead daughter come back to try and bite him. Lenny didn't have long to get him out of there.

Brian didn't reply, and Lenny didn't expect him to. "She wouldn't want you to sit in there forever. She…"  
"Don't tell me what my daughter would have wanted. You don't know her like I do, and you never will."

His voice was calm, with a hint of anger that wasn't fully expressed. He was clearly restrained, and the tense silence was interrupted with the sounds of his sobbing.

"I'm sorry, Brian. I was wrong to say that. But at some point, you will have to leave her. She's gone, and she isn't coming back." They were harshly true words, but they needed to be said. There was a tent covering between them, so Lenny could not see Brian's reaction.

"I know," he said solemnly. "I know she's dead, I'm not stupid. But she was all that kept me going in this living hell. She was the one who I stayed alive for. And now, I don't need to do that anymore."

Lenny realised too late what he meant. As he barged into the tent hopelessly, knowing he couldn't stop him in time, he heard the man's final words.

"Good luck, Lenny."

All that followed was a single gunshot.

* WD * WD *

Victor had gone out on his own, against Lenny's wishes. While some of the new arrivals had been organising a search for the opposite direction, he had snuck out. Eileen saw him go, but didn't say anything. She probably would have asked to go with him out of sympathy, but he would have rejected her kindness. He didn't want a little girl going out with him to look for his wife. She had already proven herself to be pretty bad in a fight, so why bother bring her? She would be a liability.

He could only hope that Jessica had gone the way he was going. As he approached a large, dirty greenhouse, a sense of uncertainty consumed him. Even if she was in there, what might he find?

If the walkers had been here, they were certainly gone now. A brief look-around confirmed it. He took a deep breath, clutching a baseball so tight it hurt his fingers, and went inside.

Even in the light, it was still really dark inside. There could be walkers in there, and he wouldn't know until he was right in front of them. He pushed his fear aside, determined to find his wife.  
"Jessica!"  
She was either not there, or she couldn't reply. He hoped so badly that she was not there now.

He searched around the tables and underneath, glaring at the mud, not seeing her or any walkers. He was about to give up when he saw something in the corner of his eye, on the floor close to where he had come in. He had missed it when he entered because it had been just in the darkness out of sight. It was a small shape, and part of it had a blue design on it. He bent down to retrieve it, grabbing it and standing in the clear light, outside of the greenhouse.

It was a pregnancy test, with a big plus on the side.


	7. Chapter 7: Pursuit

The search had so far turned up nothing, but that could only be expected. If the survivors had – well, survived – they would be long gone, either heading into the city or out of it. The latter seemed like the safer option. There was still plenty of ground to cover, but it would be dark soon and they would have to head back.

Hugh had three people with him: Mira, Randy and Grant. Mira was a good fighter and a strong influence on the decisions, but he doubted her capability. It could be because of old-fashioned sexism, or maybe because when she looked at him, she looked for too long, and her flirting was irritating. Randy was his right hand man. Tough and intimidating, but he was hesitant when it came to killing. He refused to kill unless absolutely necessary. That made him so very different to Grant, who was a ruthless, sadistic psychopath. When Hugh had found him scavenging and offered him a place in his group, the madman had been on top of a walker, grinning as he beat it to death with his bare hands. As long as he was on the same side, he made a good ally.

Hugh had left the other two, Becky and Patricia, at the camp to keep watch on the campers. He didn't know how much they knew about the girl they had with them, but the less they knew the better. That way they wouldn't be so upset when she disappeared.

Mira broke the silence. "Hugh, I wanted to talk to you about the girl."  
"I'm listening."  
"Have we got a plan, or…"

Hugh smirked at her. "Oh, I've got a plan. I just don't feel the need to tell you yet."  
Mira did not return the smirk. "You don't have a plan, do you? So much for our great and wise leader…"

Mira was not intimidated by Hugh. So as he pressed his body up against hers and wrapped his hand around her arm tightly, she showed no fear.  
"You're grumpy today, aren't you?"

Her brave defiance made him soften a little, and he released his grip on her arm.  
"We take her, okay? I will tell you how and when, when I feel I like it. But don't ever doubt me. You'll end up walker food if you do that again."

She seemed unsettled, so he stepped back and continued walking, pleased that he had taken her down a peg or too. Randy and Grant had watched the whole thing with uncertainty, and then quickly followed, leaving Mira to compose herself and catch up.

* WD * WD *

Karen was the first to notice. "Look!"  
Her three companions swivelled round, and their hearts fell as they saw a pack of walkers approaching from behind them.  
"Get under the cars!" whispered Sam frantically.

They all ran in different directions, searching for a space to slip under and hide. Karen crawled below a smashed-up pick-up truck, making sure she was out of sight. She had no idea where the others had gone, so all she could do was hang tight and wait.

Her heart thumped increasingly fast as what seemed like hundreds of feet passed slowly. As a few of them stopped, others followed suit and with horror she realised that they knew there was food nearby. They must have smelt it.

Karen remained still, taking shallow breaths for fear of making too much noise. But for what seemed like hours, they started to shuffle away, until it seemed like they were all gone. She waited for a bit longer, and then she left her hiding space underneath the car. As she stood up, she saw the pack heading away with their backs turned. She breathed a sigh of relief, seeing the other three exiting their hiding places. She turned around to walk in the opposite direction…

… and stumbled, crashing into the side of a car.

A car alarm blazed incredibly loudly, and all hope was diminished as the walkers headed back the way they came, rushing forwards. The foursome ran for the other direction, skidding to a halt as another pack of walkers approached. With both sides of the road blocked, there was only one direction left.

Nobody spoke as they climbed over the barrier and jogged down the steep hill, heading for the city.

* WD * WD *

How Jessica had survived until morning was a difficult question to answer. Somehow the walkers had lost her in the woods, so she had scaled a tree and attempted to sleep for the rest of the night. Unsurprisingly, she found it difficult to get comfortable while sitting on a tree branch, so she just changed her seating position every so often and looked up at the sky longingly. It had been a long night, waiting for the sun to come out. As soon as she felt it safe, she climbed down and stretched, trying to get rid of her discomfort.

She set off at a brisk pace, desperate for some water. She wanted so badly to go back to the camp, but the walkers she had lost might be still be on her trail, and so they blocked her return trip. Until then, she had to find a river or a stream, and soon. Dehydration would be a more unpleasant death than being devoured by walkers.

The woods seemed to go on forever, and she felt like giving up. She had no idea where she was going, and everyone who would look for her was probably dead anyway. But she had to keep going. For the baby.

As her thoughts changed to Victor, something appeared in the distance. Definitely not a walker, she reassured herself. It wasn't a person. It looked like… a lake. She rushed over and, to her absolute amazement, she was right. It was a lake! Full of beautiful, clean water. She didn't hesitate to dip her head in the water, scooping cups of it into her mouth.

Maybe there was hope for her after all.


	8. Chapter 8: Hope

Exhausted, hungry, thirsty… but hopeful. Phillip powered on with his little legs, refusing to give up. They were running through a field, tower blocks looming over them, gradually getting closer and closer. He didn't know what the plan was if they reached the city. Hide in a building that was miraculously devoid of walkers? There was little chance of survival, but he had to at least try. Hope was all he had left.

A restaurant could be seen from maybe five hundred metres away. Getting to it would be difficult. His lungs were on fire and his legs were close to collapsing, several times having nearly propelled him to the ground. If he fell down, he didn't think he would be able to get back up. Death seemed like the easier option.

The other three slipped ahead, and for fear of being left behind, he increased speed. Soon enough they were there, racing towards a McDonalds with thirty or so walkers a hundred metres behind.

Sam leaped over the barrier and barged the door open with his shoulder, urging the others to hurry up. They sped inside, and he slammed the door shut, searching for items to barricade it with. Nothing. The chairs and tables were attached to the floor, little else to consider using as a blockade.

Phillip violently threw up on the floor, vomit spraying the once-cosy seats and tables. Karen turned away in disgust, suddenly feeling the urge to do the same thing. Calvin leant against a wall panting, tears dropping to the carpet. Sam would have to take charge. Again.

"Calvin, help me with this door!" he ordered, pressing against it with all his strength in preparation for the walkers. "Karen, look for something to block the door, and while you're doing that, see if you can find an exit!"

Nobody moved. They just stood there, staring at him.

"Move it, now!"

They regained their senses and got to work, Calvin begrudgingly lending his strength with the door. Karen searched the restaurant, scavenging behind the food counter. She returned with several knives and a key.

There was a sudden jolt and Sam and Calvin were nearly thrown forwards. They pushed against the door as hard as they could, the horrible groaning of the walkers echoing in their ears. Karen rushed for the door, helping with the struggle while attempting to force the key into the lock. Phillip appeared, aiding with pushing the door, and soon enough Karen was able to turn the key in the lock. The walkers slammed against the door, unable to get past the door's strong lock.

The foursome slipped down to the floor, breathing heavily. For the moment, they were safe. The walkers gave up and left, prowling the streets for more accessible food.

* WD * WD *

Becky and Patricia had steered clear of Lenny after Brian's suicide. He didn't need them there to attempt to console him and end up making him feel worse. He needed time. Eileen didn't leave her tent either. She had come out just after the gunshot, and then shortly returned to her bed afterwards. Her sobs were distant, but easily recognisable.

Patricia spoke. A grown woman, she seldom expressed emotion, always focused on survival. Her abilities were never challenged though. Hugh had first met her after a pack of seven or so walkers had stormed a house. Patricia had casually walked out through the front door, bloody kitchen knife in her hand. Becky was more intimidated by her than Hugh.

"I suppose you're wondering about that girl."

Becky was taken aback. Patricia rarely spoke to her, usually ignoring her completely. This was because Becky was not a good fighter. The eighteen year-old had watched walkers storm her home and devour her parents, about to be killed herself when Randy showed up and saved her. Hugh had allowed her to join the group out of pity. She offered little to the group, which was why she was resented by Patricia. She was careful with her reply, anxious about the older woman next to her.

"A little bit, yeah." She was vague, expecting Patricia to berate her on the disadvantages of wondering, or something stupid like that.

"What are you wondering about her?"  
"Um… I guess I don't really know what's so special about her."

Having avoided eye contact before, it was surprising when Patricia turned to her, looking straight through her.

"She may look like some innocent, damaged girl, but trust me when I say that she is a bad apple. She is not to be trusted, no matter what. Do you understand?"

The intimidating woman was being very forward, giving Becky cause for concern. Something about Eileen was being kept secret from her, and she wanted to know what it was. The girl had done something that deserved punishment, but what? Becky kept her thoughts to herself, devising a plan to get the truth.

"Yes, I understand."  
"Smart girl. You'll be on the winning side when the shit hits the fan."

* WD * WD *

Victor followed the tracks of the walkers, their footsteps leading him into the woods. Danger waited, but he didn't care. His wife and unborn child were lost, maybe even dead. He had to know the truth, so that he could mourn. The nicer alternative was that he found Jessica; they embraced lovingly and walked back to the camp with no disturbances. A man could dream, couldn't he?

It was getting dark now, and he was struggling to follow the walker's footprints. He knew that he should walk back now, but his wife's life could be hanging in the balance. He kept going, no longer sure if he was following the tracks or if he was just wandering aimlessly. He was about to give up when he saw someone stumbling forward in the dark. They were too far away to be properly seen, so he rushed forwards, ready to embrace his wife.

"Jessica! Jessica!"

She turned around, and ran towards him. They got closer and closer…

… and she tackled him.

Sent sprawling to the ground, he heard the groan and realised just how stupid he had been. She would have been long gone by now. Wishful thinking was about to get him killed.

The walker leaned forwards to bite his neck, but he quickly reacted by plunging his knife into its forehead. It slumped and fell to the side.

It was not over yet, though. More walkers appeared, three appearing out of nowhere and lunging for him. He dodged two, but the third grabbed his ankle, pulling with great strength. His knife was still imbedded in the corpse, and his gun was lost somewhere in the dark. He kicked out, but it was no use. The other two joined the attack, climbing on top of Victor.

Three gunshots and the bodies went limp.

A shadow stood over Victor, clutching a smoking gun.

"Sometimes, Victor, I wonder how your stupidity hasn't gotten you killed yet," said Rita.


	9. Chapter 9: Moving On

Lenny sat on the park bench, staring into the distance. The city was a beautiful sight, when it wasn't plagued with horrifying memories. It all came back to him in a flash, and tears sneakily crept down his face. Everything had gone so horribly wrong because of him. If he had never saved Eileen, those walkers wouldn't have followed them all the way to the camp. Already two people were definitely dead, and six presumed to be. Victor had been gone for a while, but that was understandable. Both him and Lenny were mourning. They needed time.

Brian and Juno had been buried next to each other further down the hill. The bodies of the walkers had been burned in one huge sickening heap on the road. No one had offered words about Brian or Juno, because nobody had known them very well. This nightmare had thrown people together and forced them to survive together. Everyone was a stranger now.

Eileen came over and sat next to him, her hands gripping the seat nervously. She clearly wanted to say something, but was working herself up for it. Lenny lost patience. "Spit it out," he muttered.

"I'm really sorry, Lenny," she said suddenly, her words tumbling out of her mouth nervously. "All of this is my fault. I'm really, really sorry."

Lenny looked at her, knowing what she was talking about. He was going to ask anyway. "What are you sorry about?"

Once again her words tumbled out. "The walkers were following me and then you saved me, and then they followed us right back to the camp and it's all my fault, I'm so, so sorry." Her words were difficult to comprehend because she was talking so fast.

"Listen to me," he said sternly, offering no sympathy, "this is not your fault. I made the decision to save you, so why bother feeling guilty? And why tell me this? Do you think by apologising to me everything will just magically fix itself? That my wife will come back with everyone we've lost along the way, and we'll all sit around the campfire pretending nothing ever happened?"

Eileen stayed silent, feeling guiltier. She sobbed quietly and muttered another apology. Lenny suddenly felt sympathy for her. He was about to speak again when she cut him off.

"I was lost in the city, all alone. So when you saved me and took me back to the camp, I thought I was safe. But now so many people are dead and that's on me. Don't pretend it's not my fault, because it is. I know it is and you don't have to bullshit me. Everything was fine until I came along… I show up and then everything goes to hell."

Lenny watched the girl cry for quite some time, realising that he was not the only one who had lost someone. "Where… Where's your family, Eileen?"

She looked up at him, her eyes bright red. "Gone, maybe for forever. Mom died three weeks ago. Three weeks and two days ago. Dad… he went off the rails. He did bad things and it scared me. We found other survivors and they literally did whatever it takes to survive. We stayed in an abandoned house two nights ago, and I snuck out of my window when everyone else was asleep."

"Were you on your own for two days?"  
"Ye… Yeah. Yeah, I was."

Lenny knew he shouldn't ask, but he couldn't stop himself. "What bad things did your father do?"

"Please don't make me answer that. That's something I can't tell you, I'm afraid."

He respected her privacy, but wanted to ask her more. He stopped himself, careful to not cross the line. He heard footsteps and looked up. Hugh was back with his fellow minions, stood over him.

"We didn't find anyone. I'm sorry."

Lenny nodded, refusing to look the man in the eye. "Okay then. Help yourself to the food."

Everyone was surprised. "Really?" said Hugh. Eileen glared at him with shock, as if she had just remembered something bad.

"Why not? There aren't exactly many mouths to feed anymore, are there?" said Lenny solemnly.

Hugh expressed gratitude. "I promise that we will do our best to find them in the morning." He left with no further comment to go tell his group the good news. Eileen stared after him, eventually attracting the attention of Lenny.

"Eileen?"

She snapped out of her trance. "Yes? Is something wrong?"  
"No, you just seemed to be staring at him, is all."  
"Oh, um… well, he's just nice to look at, I guess."

She abruptly got up and walked back to her tent, hardly muttering a "goodbye". For a teenage girl, she was a terrible liar. Lenny could tell that Eileen had seen Hugh before. The full details would have to be extracted from her in the morning. For now, he didn't seem like a threat.

* WD * WD *

Karen was sat at one of the tables, staring at the door. A dirty plate lay in front of her, the food on it having been devoured with pleasure several hours before. There had been some food left over in the fridge and the electricity was still running, so Sam had cooked up some burgers and the four of them had happily tucked in to their first meal in what felt like days. Phillip had fallen asleep on one of the seats, and Calvin had just curled up on the floor like a little kid, snoring.

Sam sat next to her, bringing over a plate of fries. "Care for some fattening sticks of grease?"  
Karen chuckled and picked up a single French fry, slipping it into her mouth. "Don't mind if I do," she said jokingly. Her tone became more serious when she next spoke. "I'm sorry for being such a bitch today."

Sam was genuinely surprised. "How do you mean?"  
"Well, you know, moaning all the time, criticising the decision to not go back to camp, showing no concern for my husband…"

"I got a little irritated with you. That doesn't mean I thought you were being a bitch. You're far from it." That made her smile. "Also, I could guess why you didn't speak about Lenny much."

"Is it that obvious?"

He smiled as a response.

"Well, as you guessed, things haven't been perfect in Marriageland; what with ravenous freaks we used to call our neighbours have taken over the world. Lenny's been difficult to connect with since it all started, and I haven't been much help improving his mood."

"Do you think he's alive?"

"No. He's dead. Maybe it's for the best. I've doubted my love for him for years now. I should be more upset about him, but I'm not, and I can't change that. I suppose it's time to move on now, and focus on survival."

"Just survival?"

Karen looked at him, knowing what he was hinting at. She smirked.

"Maybe not."

Their lips locked within a matter of seconds, oblivious to the world as passion radiated off them.


	10. Chapter 10: Question Time

Victor opened his eyes. He was on his back on a sofa, with a blanket draped over him. His knife –cleaned since he last saw it – had been placed on a table across from him. He was in a sitting room, and there was the sound of a kettle coming from another room, presumably the kitchen. Rita walked in with a mug full of coffee. "Nice to see that the beast has woken, then."

Rita had promised to tell him everything in the morning, escorting him to a derelict cottage that they entered through a trap door leading into the basement. Every other entrance was boarded up, apart from one window that was the exit in case the building was overrun. Victor took the mug from her without showing any gratitude and slurped it slowly, occasionally burning his tongue. He finished it off and placed the mug down on a mat on the table next to his knife. He then looked up at Rita, who was reading a gardening magazine. She looked back, and shrugged. "I have little to entertain myself with, and this is the only magazine I could find."

"You promised to answer my questions this morning," he said impatiently, hinting at her to close the magazine. She closed the magazine, sighed, and placed it on the table in front of her. "What do you want to know then?" she asked.

"For starters, how the hell are you still alive?"  
"Well, I couldn't sleep that night, so I had gone for a walk for a bit. I was just heading back when I saw the walkers attack the camp. I turned around and ran into the woods. I got lost for quite some time, until I stumbled upon this lovely little cottage. It took me a while to get inside because the front and back doors were boarded up, but I managed to get in through the basement. There's plenty of food and water, and occasionally the electricity functions properly. I've been holed up here ever since."

Victor was impressed, but didn't show it. "How did you find me, then?"  
"You, being the most indiscreet person I've ever met, was shouting out for Jessica. I recognised your voice immediately because you had a habit of talking everyone to death back at camp." She ignored his look of irritation. "Anyways, I went out because I thought Jessica might be nearby, and then I saw you run into a walker, like the smart man you are. You're welcome, by the way."

Victor had never thanked her, and he didn't plan to. "Have you seen Jessica? I think she ran into the woods somewhere near here."  
"No, I haven't seen here, unfortunately. But she's a resourceful woman. She's probably asleep in a tree somewhere."

Victor retrieved his knife and was about to get up when Rita spoke again. "If you're not going to show any gratitude, you at least owe me some answers too. What happened back at the camp?"

"All the walkers are dead. Some new guys showed up and took care of them. They're out looking for some lost survivors."

Rita raised her eyebrows. "Who is lost?"  
"Karen, Sam, Phillip, Calvin, Jessica, you… and me, technically."  
"Eileen is safe?"  
"The new girl? Yeah, she's fine."

Rita breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank God for that. But still, I wonder where the others would have gone. I do hope they're safe."

Victor got up and went out to leave, not saying another word to the woman who had saved his life. He was just outside of the cottage when Rita caught with him, with a bag on her shoulders and a knife in her hand. He looked at her with surprise. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Isn't it obvious?"  
"You're not coming with me."  
"Oh yes I am, and there's nothing you can do about it."  
"It's not safe for an old woman."

Rita sighed. "I can't believe you are still being ageist against me even though I saved your life barely twelve hours ago. I won't let an idiot wonder off into the woods alone. You stand more of a chance of surviving with me."

And with that, she headed forwards, and all Victor could do was follow.

* WD * WD *

Karen woke up with an arm draped around her and with someone's breath against the back of her neck. It was a nice feeling that she hadn't felt in a while. She turned around to smile at the man lying beside her, and recoiled in shock.

It was Lenny. Fast asleep on the floor in a kitchen at McDonalds. She blinked a few times.

Sam was fast asleep next to her. It didn't seem like such a good feeling anymore.

She got up, realising she was naked but for her panties. She retrieved her clothes, crumpled on the floor, and put them on. She made sure to be quiet so as to not wake Sam, and left the kitchen, entering the restaurant. Phillip and Calvin were sat at a table playing with a deck of cards, and for the first time in a while Philip smiled. Maybe Calvin wasn't so bad, then. Now that he wasn't with that horrible Victor.

They didn't see or hear her, so she snuck off to the toilets. She shouldn't have done that last night. She felt like a slut, having sex with another woman after two nights of being separated from her husband. She tried to tell herself that it was his fault for flirting, but it didn't work. They were both equally to blame. She stood in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at her messy hair and sighing. How could she face him today? He must feel regret too, she thought, straightening her clothes and running her face under cold water. She doubted he did, though. He had looked at her like he had done last night several times back at camp. He was a flirt, and she wished she had not reciprocated his looks every time back at the camp. She wanted her husband back.

She was so deep in thought that she didn't notice the walker exit the cubicle behind her.

As cold hands gripped her neck, she screamed as loud as she could, whilst turning round and elbowing the walker in the face. It crumpled and fell to the floor, but not before the damage had been done. Its teeth scraped her forearm, drawing blood.

Calvin ran inside with Sam close behind, still undressed down to his boxers. Calvin guessed why Sam was underdressed but didn't say anything about it. They both saw the walker on the floor. Calvin rushed towards it and – seeing that it was still moving – stabbed it repeatedly with a knife until he was sure it was dead. Sam rushed over to Karen. She hid the scrape from sight.

"Are you okay—"  
"I'm fine," she replied quickly, pushing against his bare chest to get past. He stepped aside and she stormed out of the bathroom as fast as she could, not saying another word.


	11. Chapter 11: Desperate Measures

Jessica woke up – once again – in a tree, with backache and an uncomfortable ass. Doing her usual routine check of walkers, she accepted that it was as safe as it could be given the circumstances, so she carefully climbed down the tree and set off again, her stomach rumbling. She knew that she had to eat soon, and not just for her. Already she was having her doubts about whether or not the baby had starved to death. She was ashamed of herself for then thinking that that might be a better outcome than giving birth in the apocalypse. But wouldn't it? At least it wouldn't have to suffer every day, she told herself, the occasional tear streaming down her face. Whatever she thought to cheer herself up, it wasn't working. Her baby was probably dead now, and there was no positive outcome of that. It was still another death she would have to remember for the rest of her life.

Hope appeared, in the form of a road. She could see in the distance a large house, painted white with shiny grace surrounding it. She was compelled to go, with the possibility that there were other survivors who would take pity on her and give her food and a bed for the night. She was so focused on using what little energy she had left to reach the house that she barely noticed the huge heap of burnt wood that would once have resembled a barn not too far from her intended destination.

What struck her first as she got closer and closer were the heaps of bodies scattered across the grass. Dried blood ruined its shininess, and flies buzzed around like a swarm, taking their pick of decomposed flesh. Already she felt the urge to throw up, which wouldn't help with the morning sickness – that was, if she were to ever be given the chance to have morning sickness.

The house was unfortunately abandoned. The heap of bodies said that a battle had taken place, and the walkers had won, despite the heavy losses on their side. That could mean that there were still walkers nearby, but Jessica pushed her fear aside. The survivors might have left some food behind in their rush. She needed to eat soon or her baby could die, if it wasn't already dead. This was the only option she had left.

* WD * WD *

"I want to go back to the camp," said Karen suddenly, bringing it up out of the blue. Her three companions looked at her like she was mad.

"Why abandon a safe place like this so that we could go back somewhere that we barely escaped with our lives?" asked Sam, irritated that she had started to blank him since the start of the morning. "We have a good food supply here, the doors are locked and secure, and we have electricity!"

"I want to see my husband."  
"You told me you thought he was dead."  
"I don't care about that. I just want to see him."  
"How can you be sure he's still there, even as a walker? He might have wondered off somewhere looking for food."  
"I'll take the risk."

Sam gave up arguing with her, knowing that it wasn't going to get them anywhere. She was going, and he couldn't stop her.

"I'm coming with you," said Phillip quietly, attracting everyone's attention. "I miss everyone there, and I don't like it here. It doesn't feel safe." He then looked Karen right in the eyes, and she could tell. He knew.

"Me too," said Calvin, but it didn't have quite the same affect as when Phillip had said it. It sounded more impressive coming from a twelve year old.

Sam sighed in defeat. It's still the morning, so if we set off in the next half-hour, we could probably be back at the camp by nightfall." He didn't sound confident in his plan, but everyone knew the risks. They could quite possibly within the first thirty seconds of exiting the building. It seemed like a risk worth taking – at the time.

They packed plenty of food, filled up water bottles, and left the building twelve minutes later, heading back to camp.

* WD * WD *

Hugh was out scouting with Randy, Patricia and Grant. Mira had opted to stay out of his way after his threat, so she had decided to keep an eye on Becky instead. Hugh had his doubts about the young girl; she seemed like she didn't trust him, and that made her a potential enemy. Keeping watch of her would determine whether or not she was considering changing sides. Even she knew that the campers were enemies. But thankfully, there were only two enemies left after the attack, so the inevitable fight would be easy enough.

Randy and Patricia had scouted ahead, so Hugh grabbed Grant's arm and pulled him out of earshot of the other two. Grant didn't resist; he complied cheerfully, knowing that he was being let in on something good.

"You're loyal to me, aren't you?" His voice was friendly with a hint of threat. Grant answered truthfully: "Of course I am. What do you want doing?" He knew Hugh well enough to guess when he wanted a task completed. Grant always got the tasks that involved danger. For him, it was just a bit of fun.

"Alright then, I've decided that we're taking the girl tonight. She's valuable, and I can't have her wasting away on some unprotected hill. We need her back at base. But we can't do that with Lenny around. He'll protect her with his life."

Grant grinned sadistically, showing off all of his rotten teeth. He stroked the knife in his belt with two fingers. "I'll take care of him."

Hugh did not return the grin. He was remaining deadly serious. "Wait until it gets dark, after we get our meals. Then tell him that you saw something in the woods. Take him out there and…" He didn't need to finish the sentence. The message was clear. "Try not to make much noise. We don't want the girl to find out something's wrong until it's too late."

"You can count on me, boss," smirked Grant. He gave a mocking salute and jogged to catch up with Randy and Patricia.


	12. Chapter 12: Take Your Time

No walkers had appeared and attacked, so the journey back to the camp had felt relatively safe. So far they were approaching where they had been ambushed by the walkers last time. The memory wasn't pleasant for any of them, so fear took hold as they passed cars, expecting a walker to jump out. It all seemed to be going well for now.

Calvin heard the voices first, edging forward from the other three. "Hello!" he shouted out, running forward and disappearing behind a bus in pursuit of the voices. Sam was about to follow when he realised Karen was no longer next to him. He looked around and saw her leaning against the side of a car. She looked weak, ready to collapse. He rushed over and just caught her in his arms as she fell. Her body went limp and she sagged in his arms.

"No… please God, no…"

He found a pulse with his fingers. Relief flowed through him as he realised that she wasn't dying. She was just unconscious. She would wake up, but when? Walkers might show up soon, and he couldn't carry her all the way back while evading their grasping fingers and sharp teeth. Calvin would be back in a second with those people, he told himself, watching out for walkers.

* WD * WD *

Hugh stopped in his tracks as a boy, barely seventeen or eighteen, appeared from about fifty metres away. He was shouting out, his face full of hope and fear at the same time. He waited for the boy to come to him.

"Thank God, other survivors!" the boy gasped, having sprinted the distance to Hugh. "We're trying to get back to a campsite outside the city, have you seen any walkers?"

Hugh's eyes lit up. "Campsite? Do you know a man called Lenny?"  
"Yeah, yeah, is he still alive? His wife's with us, and so is Sam and Phillip. We got separated, and we had to hide out in the city, but we're heading back now. Were you looking for us?"  
Hugh smiled. "Why yes we were. Boy, are we glad to see you! Come on, take us to your friends, and we'll get you back safe and sound."  
"Oh, thank you so much… thank you."

The boy rushed off down the road, closely followed by Hugh, Randy, Patricia and Grant. He stopped in front of his group, an athletic-looking man holding a pale woman to his chest, and a little boy with large innocent eyes. The boys and the man smiled hopefully at the new arrivals. That was until Hugh tore a knife out of his belt and plunged it into the older boy's back.

* WD * WD *

Darkness approached, much to the disdain of Victor. He had no idea where to camp out for the night and every minute he wasted sleeping was a minute that Jessica could be getting further and further away. Rita expressed similar concerns, but was not sure how to break it to Victor that they were done for the day. She was about to try to break it to him when they spotted a large house in the distance. The pair looked at each other.

"We have to stop here tonight," said Rita, hoping that Victor wouldn't argue like he always did. He nodded with sadness, sniffing loudly and overtaking Rita. She followed quietly, not sure how to comfort him. It was clear that he got worse with every day that he didn't know if Jessica was alive. But if he found her dead or as a walker, how would he react then? Rita didn't want to be around if that happened, but she wanted to find Jessica just as much as he did. The lost woman was one of the few completely moral and seemingly perfect left in this awful, imperfect. Losing her would have an affect on everyone.

"She's pregnant," said Victor suddenly, not looking at his companion. "I found a test in the greenhouse near the camp. It must have slipped out of her pocket as she ran."

Rita didn't express her shock, not wanting to make him uncomfortable. "How can… how can you be sure it's hers?"  
Victor then looked at her, stopping in his tracks. "I just know. It has to be her. I… I don't know how I feel about it just yet, but… but it's still my kid. I could be a father still, but she might not be… she might…" He couldn't finish the sentence.

Rita made a bold move: she hugged him. "We're going to find her, Victor. I promise you we'll find her."

For a few seconds, he just stood there, but then he returned the hug, and started crying. "I love her so much," he weeped into her shoulder. "I can't live without her. I know that I've been a shit husband, but I can change. I want to change for her. I want her to love me like I love her. I'll stop being a dick, I'll help out more, I'll… I'll do whatever it takes."

He sobbed for what seemed like ages, both of them forgetting the threat of walkers. Rita was happy that at last Victor had changed, but she had made a promise that she didn't think she could keep. If Jessica was dead, then he might go back to his old, vile ways. Jessica was what kept him sane, and what kept everyone else from punching his lights out. She had to be alive.

They released their embrace. "Come on then, we've got a big day ahead of us," said Rita cheerfully. Victor smiled and they walked up to the house together. They carefully opened the front door, stepping inside and shutting it behind them. There was the sound of scuffling feet on the floor above them, and they grabbed their guns.

"Hello, is anybody home?" Victor called out. The shuffling stopped and a person stepped out onto the landing.

For a while they just stared at each other, thinking that it was a sick dream taunting them. Eventually, an armed Jessica rushed down the stairs and threw herself at her husband, crying with joy.

* WD * WD *

Karen opened her eyes to a car tyre right in front of her. Her head was pounding and the bite wound on her forearm was throbbing painfully. Sound returned and she heard voices in the distance. She got up wearily, and jumped back as she stepped on a body. He was still alive, but barely. Blood flowed like a waterfall out of him, and with horror she saw his face. It was Calvin. His eyes met hers for just a moment, and then they rolled up into his head. He was gone.

She just stood there, staring at his body. Last time she had seen him, he had been heading off shouting to someone, presumably other survivors. Then everything had gone black. Well, wherever these other survivors were, they were not here, and neither was Sam or Phillip.

It didn't take her long to come to the realisation. The other survivors had killed Calvin. Both Sam and Phillip had been taken captive, or they had escaped. Hopefully the latter was what had happened. But that left her alone, weak and infected with crazy killers nearby. She retrieved her gun which was fortunately still in the back of her jeans. Arming herself, she followed the voices.

Six backs to her, she approached silently, crouching behind cars and gradually getting closer. It was clear that Sam and Phillp were there as she got closer and recognised them. But the other four were new to her mind. They wielded pistols and had machetes slung over their backs. Three of them were hugely muscular, and doubt crossed her mind. She had little chance of killing them and saving Sam and Phillip. But based on the fact that she was a dead woman walking anyway, she might as well die trying.

She was close enough to kill at least one of them before she went down, and was about to jump out when one of them spoke. He was the largest all of them, boasting huge arms that could probably crush her skull. She would aim for him when the time came.

"Here will do," he said with his deep voice, pointing at the edge of the road. Karen realised that the road had sloped up considerably, and that there was a large drop over the edge. She didn't have much time, so she quickly thought of a plan that could possibly save her friends.

"Stand at the edge." Sam and Phillip complied with the intimidating man's instructions, stepping over the barrier just barely still on the road. Phillip was sobbing loudly, gripping Sam's hand.

"Please," begged Sam. "He's just a little boy. Spare him."  
"Can't do that, I'm afraid. Randy, push them over."

The one with the second-biggest body didn't look happy. "I can't. Not the boy. We can leave him here; we don't need to kill him."  
The leader wasn't impressed. "He will die either way. This is the easy way out for him."  
"Why can't we bring him with us, then? He could be of use to us."

The leader drew his pistol out and pointed it at Randy's head. "You have ten seconds to push them over the edge or I will shoot you. Do you want to die with them? Waste of a life. Is that what you want?"

"But..."  
"Nine..."

The muscled Randy trembled as he approached Sam and Phillip, his hands outstretched ready to push them. Karen pointed her gun at him, shaking with fear.

"Eight…"


	13. Chapter 13: Of Mice And Men

Eileen was gone.

Lenny had come to that conclusion pretty quickly, having checked every nook and cranny of the camp. She had been there earlier in the morning, but she had tried to avoid him all morning. Now it was too late to find out what she knew about Hugh, unless she hadn't been gone long.

He had considered the possibility of taking the car and going into the city, but Eileen wasn't stupid. She had barely survived last time she had been to the city, so she would be heading somewhere else. There were only three options for her: the highway, the roads leading directly to the city, or the woods. Lenny settled on the conclusion that she had taken the third option.

It didn't take him long to find her. He saw her walking after fifteen minutes, so tried to sneak up on her. But that didn't work, as the loud branches being crushed under his feet weren't helpful, so she noticed pretty quickly. She swivelled round and pointed a gun in his direction, likely to miss if she fired but still threatening.

"Leave me alone," she raged, her face full of anger. "Go back to the camp or I'll shoot you." She didn't sound sure of herself, but Lenny wasn't going to rely on her fear stopping her from shooting. If anything, it would encourage her.

"You need to tell me what's going on, Eileen," he said carefully, trying not to sound too insistent. "I can help you."

She shook her head, and sobs could be heard in her voice. "No one can help me. No one _has_ helped me. They've used me. Don't pretend you're any different."  
"I'm not pretending. We won't know if I can help you or not unless you tell me. I'm tired of secrets." He made a bold move and stepped forward. "Karen kept secrets, but she wasn't very good at it. I found out things about her, and it was too late for me to help her. I could've done if she had just told me in the first place."

Eileen faltered slightly. "What secrets did she keep from you?"  
"When we first met, there was a boyfriend. He was a vicious man; always belittling her and making her feel worthless. I encouraged her to leave him, and she did. We moved away and got married. I thought everything was fine. But he found us. He continued to harass her for months, and she never told me, because she was scared that he would come after me. Then one day, she called me when I was at work. Asked me to rush home as fast as I could. I saw his body on the floor. He'd followed her home, attacked her and she'd killed him with a kitchen knife."

Eileen didn't speak. She just stared at Lenny, waiting for him to continue.  
"We argued for a while, and I shouted at her for not telling me. We cleaned the house and dumped the body, and then we never spoke of it again. She hasn't been the same since. Our marriage hasn't been the same since. I don't think she loves me anymore, and I don't think _I_ love _her_ anymore. I was about to ask for a divorce when this happened."

Debating with herself for a minute or two, she finally lowered the gun and walked over to him. He hugged her and she responded, and they just stood there for a while, glad to be able to release their emotions.

Lenny whispered in her ear. "Your turn." She released the embrace, and told him everything.

* WD * WD *

"Seven…"  
"Please don't make me do this, Hugh."  
"Six…"  
"They don't need to die."  
"Five…"  
"Stop!"

Everyone turned around to see Karen pointing a gun at Hugh's head. She was completely still, daring his minions to draw their guns. "Anyone makes a move and this bastard gets it in the head."

To her surprise, Hugh grinned. "We've been hoodwinked! Lover boy told us you were dead. How unfortunate that he lied. Four."

"You heard me, I'll kill you!"  
"And then what? Your friends will still die, and my associates here won't hesitate to cut you down. Three."  
"I'm warning you!"

Hugh stopped the countdown. He looked at the shivering Sam and Phillip, and then at the quietly terrified Karen. "You're a brave woman. You must be Lenny's wife." When she didn't respond, he continued. "It was such a shame that we weren't able to save him in time. Poor guy suffered. I think he was calling out someone's name." He then put on a weak voice. "Karen, oh Karen, where art thou?" He chuckled at his own bad joke, and the others joined in, apart from Randy, who looked disgusted with Hugh.

Karen did not express emotion, but deep down she wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. All she wanted was to see Lenny one last time before she died. Now she had nothing to live for, so it was time to take a risk.

"Even if you kill them, you'll still die. I'm dying anyway, so I don't give a shit how I go or when. The only way you're going to leave here alive is if you let them go."

Hugh's smugness died abruptly. "Feisty woman. I'll enjoy killing you, but first, let them go." Randy stepped back, allowing Sam and Phillip to climb over the barrier and onto safe ground. They didn't linger, quickly darting off down the road and disappearing. It wasn't over yet, though. Karen had gotten herself into a situation that she had no idea how to get out of. The moment she lowered her gun, she would be shot down, and then they would hunt down Sam and Phillip. She had to stall for a while and give them time to escape.

* WD * WD *

"I was bitten two weeks ago. My dad rescued me from the walker that bit me and took me back to 'base', as he called it. He sat by my bedside for days, and nothing happened. I didn't turn. He came to the conclusion that I was, somehow, immune to this plague. Big ideas formed in his mind about how I was the key to survival. My blood would save the world, apparently. So he convinced me to give blood, and I agreed because I thought it meant I could escape this nightmare if I did. He stole clean syringes from the hospital and used them to extract my blood. There was some trainee surgeon in our group who offered to do it. They gave it to walkers that they had kidnapped from the street and it… it worked. One of them talked for a few minutes, and then they went back to being a… well, a walker. My dad started to take more blood than was safe, and he built up a group of loyal followers who guarded me 24/7.  
"But he started to get really… strange. Mad, even. He proposed that one of the men have sex with me, so that I would get pregnant and my child would have the same blood as me. I disagreed, but he didn't give me a choice. On the night that it was supposed to happen, I had found a knife under my bed. I used it to tear open the lock on my window quietly and snuck out. I haven't seen my dad since."

Lenny had sat with Eileen against a tree, listening to her story. He wasn't entirely sure how to react, given that he hadn't been expecting her secret to be so shocking. He had come to a conclusion. "Was Hugh one of your father's followers?"

Eileen nodded. "I hadn't really recognised him before because I had been so isolated from everyone else. But when he spoke to you yesterday, when he said that he hadn't found anyone, I knew it was him."  
"How could you tell?"  
"I remembered his voice. When he had first spoken the night before after the attack, I hadn't really been paying attention because I was so tired. But I've heard him say that he couldn't find someone before. He was talking to a woman who had asked him to check her home to see if her husband was there, and he had said the exact same words he said to you last night."

"Okay, Eileen, this is very important and I want you to answer me truthfully. Is he here to take you back to 'base'?"  
She took a while to respond. "Yeah, yeah I think so. But he's dangerous, Lenny. He kills with no remorse. Not just walkers though. I saw him shoot one of the group once because he suspected them of stealing. Point blank in the face without hesitation. Tonight, he will kill you and take me back to base."

"You weren't going to tell me this? He might have killed me because you were gone."  
"I know and I'm sorry, but I was scared and I didn't want you to get mixed up in all this."  
"Well, unfortunately, I am now. But I am going to help you, alright? Firstly, we have to go back to camp and get some supplies."

Eileen shook her head. "No, no, no, I can't go back." She tried to get up, but Lenny grabbed her and pulled her to him. She fought for a bit, eventually giving up.  
"If we're going to run, we need food and water, okay? It's the only way we'll survive out here. Do you understand me?"

She nodded, out of breath from her struggle.

"Alright then, I'll go back on my own, just in case they come back. Stay here, unless you see them or walkers. Try not to use your gun, only when you have no other choice. Take this knife." He retrieved a knife from his belt and handed it to her. "If I'm not back in thirty minutes, go."

He left quickly at a jog, leaving her sitting against the tree.

* WD * WD *

Sam pulled Phillip behind a car, out of sight. They were at least five hundred metres away from Hugh and his thugs now, so it was okay to stop.

"Phillip, listen to me," said Sam quickly, kneeling down in front of him so that he was at the same height as the crying boy. "I have to go back and help Karen, but I can't let you run off on your own. It's not safe. I want you to hide under this car." He pointed at a black SUV. "You might hear some gunshots, but don't run off if you do. If we don't come back in ten minutes, wait until you think it's safe, and then leave here. If those people come past here, wait for them to pass and then head back to the camp. Do you know the way?" Phillip nodded. "If they don't pass, head back to McDonalds, lock the door behind you, and stay there." He handed him a knife. "I'm sorry that I have to leave you like this, but I've got to save Karen."

He hugged the boy, who sobbed into his shoulder. "She's bitten," replied Phillip.

Sam let him go. "What?"  
"She tried to hide it, but I saw her arm while she was covering it up. The walker in the bathroom must have got her."

Sam took time to process the information, but quickly got back to the task at hand. "Regardless of that, I can't just leave her there. I care for her very deeply, and she's already saved our lives. I need to return the favour."

He patted Phillip on the shoulder. "I hope to see you soon."

He left without another word.

* WD * WD *

"The girl and the man are gone," said Mira matter-of-factly to Becky. "They know what's going on. We have to find them before Hugh gets back or we'll be the ones dead next."

It was easy to scare Becky into doing things. She was a frightened little girl that was out of place in a group of violent killers. "Do we follow them then?" she said, unsure of what Mira was intending to do when she found them.

Mira cocked her gun. "Do you want to kill him, or shall I do it?"

Becky didn't reply, so Mira sighed and got up, walking off. Becky followed her, and they disappeared into the woods.


	14. Chapter 14: Falling Apart

Jessica explained everything to Victor and Rita, and they had listened with keen ears. The three of them took turns to give their stories of survival, and then talk of the current situation surfaced. Rita was first to raise the question.

"While I am sure we would all love to get some rest and forget our troubles for the time-being, how can we be sure it's safe here? Clearly walkers forced the inhabitants off the land as they didn't pack much food, but we don't know how long ago that was. Those same walkers could still be nearby, and I don't want to be here when they come back."

Victor replied, but not as rudely as he used to. "What do you suggest?"  
"Well, it's too dangerous to go back now, so we should stay the night here and then head to the house in the morning. What do you think?"

Jessica looked pleased, looking at her husband for confirmation. "I guess it's the only plan we've got, so we'd better set up some safety precautions, like _locking the door_." he said, giving a look to his wife.

Jessica sighed. "I forgot to, okay? Besides, I had an emergency exit planned if walkers did find the house. I could have easily slipped out of the bathroom window."

"And what if you slipped and fell? The baby could have been hurt, or worse."  
"In my defence, I hadn't eaten in a few days and I was desperate, so I'm sorry that in my haste I forgot to lock a door." That shut Victor up.

Rita changed the subject. "So what do you think about this place? Is it defendable?"  
Jessica shrugged. "Some strong windows and doors, I suppose, but a large pack could break through eventually. If we take turns keeping watch, we could spot them coming all the way from the sign, so we'll have time to grab some bags I've pre-prepared and head out."

"What sign?"  
"Down at the gate of the farm. It says 'Greene', so I presume that a family called Greene lived here, or maybe it was the name of the house or something."

Rita faltered slightly. "What's the matter?" asked Jessica. "Did you know the Greene family?"  
"I remember teaching a Maggie Green at school. I taught English, and she wasn't a very enthusiastic student. She went off the rails, but I heard after she graduated that she was back on track. I genuinely worried about her, because she was such a bright girl who didn't really try at anything, and I had heard stories about how nice her family was. I hope she got away in time, but I don't know who with and how. To think that we could have just missed them breaks my heart a little. I had always wanted to see her one more time to see how she was doing, if it was true that she had turned a new leaf. Now I'll never know."

Jessica sympathetically grabbed her hand and smiled at her. Rita smiled back. "Thank you, dear," she said. "I think I should go get some shuteye now. I'll take the second watch." Without another word, she pulled away from Jessica and left the room.

"I'm worried about her," said Jessica to Victor. "She had to watch us reunite while she had nobody to comfort her."  
Victor did not share her concern. "Jess, she hasn't survived this long by being distraught all the time. She is proactive and tough, and that's all she needs right now. Sure, she's lonely, but if she finds someone to look after her now, what will happen to her if they die?"

Jessica looked at him. "What will happen to you if I die?"  
He was silent for a moment, but then he spoke. "When I went looking for you, I really thought I was going to find you. But then I found the test, and the possibility just slowly… faded. Without you, I don't know what would happen. I'd give up, probably. How about you?"  
"I thought about it, and I've decided that I'm not going to let it happen. You are not going to die while you're with me."

She gently felt his hand, and he responded to the loving gesture. They held each other closely for a while, eventually succumbing to their need to sleep.

* WD * WD *

"How is this going to work, then?" asked a once-again smug Hugh, a sign that he had another plan. "Are you going to shoot me, and then take down the rest of my group somehow without being shot yourself?" He didn't give her time to answer before continuing to talk. "Terrible plan, really. These three are pretty good shots."

Karen scoffed. "The same can't be said for you, then?"  
Hugh chuckled. "At least you're trying humour, I'll give you that. It doesn't suit you though. You don't seem to be the type."  
"What type am I then?"  
"Still trying to work that out. I have time to, seeing as you're wasting everyone's right now."

He took a step forward, daring Karen to shoot. She didn't react, biding her time. She had to stall, so that Sam and Phillip could get away.

As if to deliberately contradict her motives, Sam appeared in her vision, crouching behind a car. If the idiot wasn't careful, he would be seen by one of Hugh's minions, and then all hell could break loose. Thankfully, he disappeared out of sight, and relief flooded through her.

Everyone was watching Hugh, and Hugh was watching Karen, so there was genuine surprise from all of them when Sam jumped from behind a car and put a gun to Patricia's head. "Guns on the ground," he said firmly.

Hugh sighed, trying to show that he had no concern with the situation. "Randy, did you check him and the boy over?"  
Randy gulped. "Yes Hugh, I did."

"You are just one large disappointment today, aren't you? First you don't check them over for weapons – the vital part – and second you disobey my orders. It's not hard to find a gun in someone's pocket, is it?"

"It wasn't in his pocket, I swear. He must have concealed it quite well."  
"You are useless. I should have left you with Becky and Mira."

Patricia coughed loudly. "While I'm sure this conversation is riveting for you too, I have a gun pointed at my fucking head," she said irritably.  
Hugh glared at her. "Don't swear at me, girl. That's disrespectful."  
Her anger died down immediately and she looked intimidated. "Yes Hugh, sorry Hugh."

"Right then," said Hugh, swivelling to turn to Karen. "Now that you have more leverage, what's it gonna be?"  
"All your weapons, down on the ground. Do that and you get to walk free."  
"I liked it better when I was in control." He turned back to his companions. "Alright then, guns on the ground."

Too late did Karen realise that there were only four people in front of her: Sam, Randy, Hugh and Patricia. Grant was gone.

She reacted too late as a gun clicked against the back of her neck.

* WD * WD *

Lenny jogged as fast as he dared, not wanting to use up too much energy. While it was only another five minutes or so back to the camp, he still had to run back to Eileen, so it was a long journey. In his haste to find Eileen earlier, he had forgotten about Mira and Becky, who must have noticed that they were no longer there. Based on Eileen's new information, Hugh's minions were bound to be out for Eileen too. Meaning that they would do whatever it takes to find her.

He spotted two figures and they spotted him. He instantly knew that it was Mira and Becky, but he wasn't sure how to react. Did they know what he was up to? If he jumped behind a tree, they would know that he considered them to be a threat. He would have to talk to them, as it was – strangely – the safest option.

They stopped in front of each other. "Are you alright," asked Mira. "We were wondering where you went, so we came to find out what was going on." Becky didn't say a word. If anything, she looked ashamed of herself.

"I'm just fine, I thought I had seen something in the woods so I went out to find out what it was."  
"And?"  
"Nothing. Probably just a rabbit or something. Anyways, I'm heading back to camp now."

"Have you seen Eileen?" Mira tried to sound concerned. "We couldn't find her, and we were hoping you were with her."  
"I thought she was still asleep in her tent. She might have gone for a walk or something, I don't know. But I would have seen her come by here if she had."  
"Not if she had gone earlier than you did."

"Look," replied Lenny calmly, "I haven't seen her, and for all you know she might be back at camp now. I'm going back there now, so I might see her."

"No you're not."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Going back."

Lenny reached for his gun, but Mira beat him to it. Before he had time to wrap his fingers around the pistol in his belt, her gun was already pointed at his head.

Mira smirked. "You're going to tell me where the girl is."

* WD * WD *

No one had passed by, but Phillip didn't want to go back to the McDonalds in the city. The camp had to be safer, surely. He stayed under the car for a long time, eventually climbing out and sneaking around to see if anyone was still there.

They were all gone.

He checked over the side to see if Sam and Karen had been thrown over the edge, but thankfully that wasn't the case. The new people had them. It seemed more and more to be up to Phillip to save the day. He took the knife and held it firmly in his hand. He would have to step up if he was going to survive.

He set off for the camp, where danger was sure to be waiting for him.


	15. Chapter 15: Bang Bang

Lenny didn't come back, as Eileen feared. He must have been intercepted on his way to the camp. She waited for twenty minutes, but lost patience as her panic intensified. Once again, she was on her own.

She didn't waste time waiting any longer. Firstly, she had to get to a safe location before she could consider her next move. Traipsing through the woods for a few hours should eventually lead her to civilisation, where empty houses awaited. She might even find some other survivors, although that wasn't always a good thing.

Lenny had been good to her. He had done more for her than her own father had done for her in his whole life. Her original attraction to her rescuer and turned into a compassion that she couldn't shake free from. She no longer had a girlish crush on him. He was her new father figure. Well, not anymore.

_Bang!_

She froze where she was standing, as if the gunshot had been nearby. Her heart was beating at an increasingly fast rate, and she was breathing so heavily it was almost like she wasn't breathing at all. Fear consumed her whole, and she had no idea what to do. Who had been hit? Were they dead?

_Lenny…_

He clearly had no use to them anymore, meaning that there was either a struggle with the gun and it was an accident, or he had told them where to find her. Well, she wasn't going to hang around for them to catch her.

She regained control of her senses and set off at a jog, with no idea where the hell she was going.

* WD * WD *

Karen opened her eyes to unfamiliar surroundings once again. Only this time, she could barely move. Her hands and feet were tied, and there was a gag over her mouth.

She was in a tent; she knew that much. The entrance was in her line of sight, and she was lying on what felt like a sleeping bag. Just across from her was Sam, also bound and gagged. He wasn't quite as awake, appearing groggy. The bleeding nose and bruise on his face made everything clear. Not that she felt much better: the back of her head hurt like hell.

It was beginning to seem more and more like they were back at the camp. The tent seemed too familiar to be some other camp, so she assumed that her kidnappers had taken control since the attack. A shadow could be seen through the tent opening: most likely a guard. Not like they needed guarding anyway, given that they were tied up and gagged. They definitely were ones for precautions.

The entrance flapped open and sunlight burst into the tent, burning her eyes. She tried to look away but it was incredibly difficult to move. She groaned in pain, as did the groggy Sam. Grant appeared in the opening, blocking the Sun's rays. He didn't stay in that position long though, reaching in to grab Karen. She didn't resist, knowing that her feeble report would achieve nothing but another blow to the head. She allowed him to put her over his shoulder and carry her out of the tent.

He dumped her – quite painfully – on the grass. She landed on her side, where she caught sight of the bench as various sites. She was sure now – it had to be the camp. She was hoping Lenny would suddenly appear, berate her kidnappers and force them to release her. Unfortunately, he was nowhere to be seen. Hugh swaggered up confidently, admiring himself while he seemingly took forever to get to Karen. He stopped in front of her and knelt down beside her. He removed the gag, and grinned at her.

"How you doing, Karen?" he smirked, twirling the gag in his fingers. "I guess it's not too comfortable in there, huh? And you're probably getting hungry by now…"

Karen didn't respond.  
"Well, come on then. Talk!" Still no reply. "Oh, you're no fun," he groaned, standing up and walking off. "Patricia, feed her!"

Patricia showed up with a tin bowl full of food. The woman sat down beside her and forced handfuls of it into her mouth. She didn't struggle once again, because that would get her nowhere. She accepted her fate as disgusting scraps of paper referred to as salad.

Sam was quite a resistant person. He was brought out just shortly after Karen had been fed and re-gagged. He spat in Hugh's face, resulting in a violent kicking montage that left him battered and weak. He then limply swallowed the salad put into his mouth.

All the while, Phillip watched from the trees, already deciding how to get them out.

* WD * WD *

_Thirty minutes earlier_

Lenny didn't know what to do. All of a sudden Mira was pointing a gun at him. He didn't move, waiting for her to say or do something. Hopefully that didn't involve shooting him.

"Well, then?" she said impatiently, waving the gun irrationally. She had lost her marbles. "Where is she?"  
"I… I don't know," he replied nervously, not sure if she should take the risk with a crazed gunwoman. "I really don't know where she is."

Mira seemed to consider it for a moment, but then she moved quickly and struck him across the face. The force was so strong it made Lenny lose his balance and fall down to the ground, landing in a heap amongst soggy leaves and the muddy soil. Becky acted as a mere spectator, nervously watching him as he regained his composure.

Mira didn't give him time to recover from the ordeal. Before he had time to react, she struck again with a vicious right hook that left his face bloody. After that he just lay there, hurting.

"Don't play games with me," she said with fury, clenching her teeth. "I don't have time for games, I don't even like games, I don't want to play games!" Saliva shot out of her mouth, resting on the blood on his face. "I'm going to get my answer, whether I have to have to break your nose to do it or not. Hell, I'll shoot you if I have to."

"You do that, and you'll never find her."  
"Who says it has to be a fatal shot?"

She pressed her gun to his thigh and he prepared for the worst. "Don't do it, Mira! Please don't do it," shouted Becky, who could no longer bear to see the torment. Mira scoffed and clicked her gun. Then another gun clicked and Lenny looked up.

Becky was pointing a gun, but not at him. Mira stood there dumbfounded as a gun was pointed towards her chest.

"What the hell are you doing?" Mira said, shocked by the betrayal.  
Becky was shaking wildly, but spoke as clearly as she could through her shudders. "Torture's not right, Mira. I can't let you do it."  
"Listen girl, I'm doing the right thing and you'd better let me get on with it."  
"It's not right at all. Don't become a killer."

Mira scoffed once again. "Become a killer? That happened a long time ago."  
"That was with walkers, it was self-defence. But this, this is cold-blooded murder. The apocalypse is no excuse for murder. I have my morals to keep and you're going against them."

Mira was barely listening. "If you'll shut up now, I'm going to get on with what I was doing, okay? Unlike you, I'm not given everything on a plate. I have to work in this group while you sit there and soak up the pity. 'Ooh, my family's dead, I have no one,' blah blah blah! It's not just you without a family. You're no better than the rest of us. You can't do what's necessary to survive. You think this guy's gonna be grateful to you. No, he'll kill you after you kill me, and then he'll loot our supplies and leave. Don't be an idiot. Just let me kill this guy, okay?"

Becky didn't back down. "If you shoot him, I'll shoot you."  
Mira sighed over-dramatically. "Fine, let's see if you've got what it takes. Come on then, shoot me. You're only protecting your morals, right? That makes it okay. Go on. Do it."

Becky shook her head, a tear trickling down her face. "Don't make me do it. Please."  
"I'm not making you do it, this is all on you." Mira pointed her gun at Lenny's thigh. "I'm gonna count down from five and if you don't shoot me by one, I'll shoot him. Five."

"Please, Mira, don't make me shoot you…"  
"Four."  
"I'll do it, don't underestimate me."  
"Three."  
"Put your guns down."

Becky and Mira turned their eyes to Lenny, who had snuck out from underneath Mira and retrieved his own gun. He was pointed at Mira, considering her to be the real threat. Becky lowered her gun instantly, silently relieved by his intervention.

Mira glared at Lenny with hatred, and right then he knew what she was going to do. For once, he was in control, so when she quickly turned to strike him with the gun, he was ready to pull the trigger.

_Bang!_

She fell to the ground as blood sprayed the nearby trees and wildlife. She didn't move after that.

Becky stared at where her companion used to be, surprised that she didn't feel anything. She didn't even care when Lenny pointed his gun at her. Instead of waiting for him to give her an order, she walked away.

"Hey! Get back here!"

She ignored him, devoid of emotion. If he wanted her, he would just have to come and get her. Or he would just have to shoot her. It didn't make any difference to her either way.

Lenny stared after her, until she disappeared from his sight. Then, he looted the ammo and gun from Mira's body, and set off after Eileen, who was sure to be far away now. He left the damaged teenager to fend for herself.


	16. Chapter 16: Turning Tables

Hugh was relaxing on the bench with his eyes closed when Grant interrupted. He groaned at the young man's intrusion of his comfort and stood up to show that he was engaged in the conversation. That, and towering over someone who was intimidated by you helped when they were complaining.

"So, what's your problem?" said Hugh in a voice that hinted at a threatening tone. Grant picked up on it and was careful with his words.  
"I'm sure there's a good explanation for it," he replied cautiously, "but I just wanted to know why those… people are still here, you know. Alive, if you get what I mean."

"It wasn't difficult to 'get what you mean', especially when you spell it out for me. My answer to your question, which is…"  
"Why are we keeping those two survivors alive?"  
"…I don't know yet."  
"Wait, what?"

Hugh raised his eyebrows at his minion's surprise. He wasn't supposed to express negative opinions if he wanted to avoid being fed to the walkers, which he realised too late.  
"Not that I'm questioning your decisions, sir," the man mumbled nervously.  
"Except you are questioning my decisions."  
"Yeah, but, not in a way that I meant I was against your decisions. I'm all for your decisions, because they keep us safe… and… and…"  
"I'm gonna stop you there, Grant. See, I tire of your pathetic sucking-up. I want to see the Grant that I saw this morning: so full of energy when you were set a task. While that task seems to be on hold, given that your target is somewhat… gone, I can assure you there will be other tasks on your way, as long as you trust me. Do you understand?"

Grant nodded, not realising that Hugh had adverted the conversation away from its original topic. He grinned at the possibility of other 'assignments'. "Oh, and Grant," said Hugh, "a better answer for me to give you would be that those survivors provide hostages in case vengeful campers return to claim their property. That is much an excuse as I can come up with at the immediate time. You may go now." He muttered a "thank you, sir" and walked off back to the tent he was occupying. Hugh returned to his relaxation for what felt like just a moment, when he was forced to take action once again.

Becky appeared, walking out of the woods at a slow pace. Her facial expression was dead pan, but laced with torment. Something had just happened, and everyone could guess by the sight of just her and no Mira. She walked into the arms of Randy, who compassionately held her as she allowed the tears to flow. He planted a kiss on her forehead to comfort her. Hugh interrupted the romantic reunion.

"Where were you?" he asked, perfectly happy in his role as 'cock-blocker'.  
"We were out looking for Lenny," she sobbed in reply, barely interpretable with her head buried in Randy's chest. "He shot Mira and ran off."  
"And you let him?" He was incredibly unsympathetic but he didn't care. On the bright side, there was one less mouth to feed, and Mira was somewhat a pain in the ass.

"It happened so fast, I couldn't react."  
"Yet he didn't take your gun or disorient you with a punch to the face. You have no injuries."  
"I dropped my gun when he told me to. He was out of range by the time I could pick it up again."  
"Why didn't you chase him?"  
"I would never have caught him. I'm only little. I thought I'd come back so someone more able could go after him."

Hugh realised that he wasn't going to get anything useful from the girl, so left her with Randy. Grant jumped over, clearly wanting this 'assignment'. Before he could ask, he said yes. "Okay then, go after him. Take a gun, knife, whatever you want. But make sure he suffers, alright? That bastard is owed some punishment."

Grant nodded and grinned sadistically. "I won't let you down, sir." He quickly bounded off for the woods. Hugh returned to his relaxation, finally at peace. Karen and Sam listened from their prison, as Patricia guarded quietly.

* WD * WD *

"Ready to go?" said Victor to Jessica, who was sitting at the dining table with her arms out in front of her. She had been deep in thought throughout the night, considering the options ahead of her. "I don't know," she replied honestly, sighing into her hand. Victor took a seat next to her.

"What's wrong?"  
"I'm just thinking about… you know, baby."  
"What's there to think about? Pregnant or not pregnant, it won't affect you today." He wasn't the best person to comfort someone.  
"I haven't felt anything today. No sickness, no cravings, nothing."  
"Does that mean something?"  
"What if I've miscarried?"

Victor touched her hand caringly. "Either way, it won't make me love you any less."  
That made her smile. "I mean it. You're the best person in the world, but sometimes these things happen. Sometimes it's not meant to be. While I would love to be a father, perhaps now isn't the best time to be thinking about it."  
"What if it turns out I'm still pregnant, even after your little heartfelt speech?"  
"Then I'll still be happy. We'll get through this together, won't we? We'll get our happy ending, I promise."

Jessica's lip quivered. "What if that's a promise you can't keep? Let's face it, it's not safe out there, and we're not safe here, so anything could happen. How long before our luck runs out, and we run into something we can't run out of?"  
She started to cry a little, and Victor held her in his arms. "Shhh now, I hate it when you cry. I will do whatever it takes to protect you, you know that? I didn't come all this way so that you could die on me. You're not going anywhere, you hear me?"

Jessica looked up into his eyes. "I thought we were going to the house," she joked. They both giggled slightly, happy to find humour in the little things left in life. They kissed and sat there together for a few minutes in silence, until Rita appeared in the doorway.

"Right, are we off then?" she said loudly, shaking them out of their thoughts. They collected their pre-packed bags and set off with little hesitation. Within a matter of minutes the Hershel family home was empty, stripped of food and ready for the next survivors to stay the night.

* WD * WD *

Karen was drooping slightly, feeling the pain in her wrist. Her bite was getting worse, and she knew she wouldn't last much longer. She had wanted to spend her last hours with Lenny, not tied up in a tent next to a man who she had slept with and out of a random need for sexual compatibility. It wasn't the way to go out, but at least she knew it was going to happen. Others hadn't been so lucky.

Patricia's silhouette hadn't moved in hours. She had a knack for standing completely still, but she must be really uncomfortable. Surely she would get bored and ask for someone else to take over, because standing in front of a tent for hours was not too appealing. But if it meant that Hugh was kept happy, anyone was bound to step up to the job to avoid dismemberment.

A car alarm went off, and Patricia instinctively reached for her gun. It couldn't have been far away, because it was quite loud in the confines of the tent. Sam jolted awake at the sound of it, mumbling irritably though his gag.

Patricia's silhouette disappeared to go and check out the noise, while it continued to blare on. Other silhouettes passed – four in total – to go and see what was going on. Then another appeared, and Karen instantly knew it was. The size was memorable enough. Still, she was a little bit shocked when the front of the tent flapped open and Phillip appeared, knife in hand.

He was quick to the cut the rope that held Karen's arms and legs together, leaving her free to tear the gag off. He then worked on freeing Sam. Appreciation could be expressed later though, and they wasted no time clambering out of the tent and making for the woods. They went round the back of the tent and…

…Hugh was stood waiting there, gun pointed towards them.

"Really? Did you really think we would all rush towards a car alarm and let ourselves be ambushed?" asked Hugh smugly. The other four then appeared, clearly having just walked a slight distance from the tent to give Phillip the impression that he had tricked them. "A car alarm was… creative for a kid. But too obvious. I mean, no one else is rushing in to ambush us and save your mommy and daddy, are they?"

Despite everything, Phillip was smiling. Even though his poor plan had failed and he had currently just gotten himself captured, he was still optimistic. Hugh was confused. "What's with the smile? There's nothing for you to smile about?"

Phillip's reply shocked them all. "Yeah, you knew my plan, but none of you have turned off the car alarm. And, after all, walkers like noise, don't they?"

With horror, Hugh realised the boy's true intentions. Patricia had too, and she suddenly rushed off towards the noise. None of them even knew where the car was except for Phillip. Hugh didn't slacken though; he continued to point his gun at the trio.

"You clever little brat. For a kid you're quite resourceful. If only you weren't on the wrong side, you could have been so useful… maybe…"

A few gunshots and Patricia's screams followed.

"Shit, go help her!" shouted Hugh to Randy, who quickly ran off, leaving Becky and Hugh with Phillip, Sam and Karen. More gunshots could be heard, but he didn't come back. There was another scream. "Shit!" bellowed Becky, who left Hugh with the prisoners while she ran off to help Randy.

Everyone watched the road that they had run down. They were expecting Becky to come back with a smoking pistol, but that wasn't the case. A flood of walkers approached instead, quickly storming the camp. But while they had all been distracted by the road, more approached from the surrounding woods, and suddenly one of them lunged at Hugh, knocking him to the ground. The trio didn't waste time.

"Move it, now!" ordered Sam, and the three of them sprinted for the only available route left. Everywhere was blocked off, except for the direction of the green house. Hugh was left with the horde while his prisoners escaped.

* WD * WD *

Becky fought against the walkers, firing bullets rapidly into their heads. But there were so many, and not enough bullets. She was left to melee them with her weakening fists, fighting as hard as she could to get to Randy.

Randy wasn't bitten, but he was about to be unless Becky saved him. Three walkers surrounded him, making lunges for his flesh. He fought them off with his strength, but he was growing tired and more approached. He couldn't reach his gun in time to shoot any as they were too close to him.

Becky fought through the horde, forgetting Patricia, who was under a pile of walkers devouring her flesh. Randy's attackers were soon on the ground as the two of them worked as a team to take them down. They charged forward and broke free, but on the other side of the road away from the camp. The only choice was to run.

Side by side, the young lovers broke into a run with seventy-something walkers pursuing them.


	17. Chapter 17: Closer

It had gotten dark quickly, which was fortunate for Sam, Karen and Phillip who could use the darkness as cover as they quietly snuck past the huge pack of walkers, heading towards the still-screaming car alarm. It had provided a helpful getaway, but they were still in danger for now.

Karen felt her eyes droop and she suddenly grew more conscious of the walkers. She felt like they were closing on her, and she had nowhere to go. Sam and Phillip were gone, already getting further away as she slipped further into oblivion. A walker stared right into her eyes, lingering for just a moment. But… it walked off, deciding against eating the food so weak-looking in front of him. Other walkers did the same, completely disregarding her as they searched for the source of the noise.

Her legs buckled and she collapsed onto her knees in the middle of the woods. Walkers brushed past her, no longer making a sound. She tried to get up, feeling intense strain on her body as she did. She was fighting to not sink to the ground but it was inevitable. She slipped towards the leaves and soil that would be her forced bed for the night.

_Please, not now…_

It was too late. If there was a God to answer her prayers, He wasn't there to hear them. Her eyes closed completely and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious as walkers continued to shuffle past her.

* WD * WD *

"Do you hear that?" whispered Jessica, who had cautiously stopped in her tracks. Victor eyed her up suspiciously, but then stopped and listened too. Rita followed suit.  
"I don't hear anything," said Rita. "What about you, Victor?"  
He shook his head. "Nothing. Are you sure you heard something?"

"Positive," replied Jessica, who could still hear whatever it was. "I don't know what it is, but I know it's something."  
Victor shrugged. "You're not paranoid, are you?"  
She glared at him. "Well, of course I am, given the circumstances, but I'm pretty sure this right now is not the cause of paranoia. I can still hear it now. Walk closer."

Victor and Rita complied, trekking forward a little bit and standing still to listen for any noises. They expressed negative reactions. "I'm sorry, dear, but I don't hear anything," said Rita. "Then again, my age could be the problem."  
"Well, I can't hear it either, so I don't think you have to worry about that."

"Seriously, I can still hear it. Come on." She walked off in the direction of where she considered the noise to be.  
"Whoa, let's not be doing that!" ordered Victor.  
"Do you have a problem with being proven wrong?"  
"No, I do not. While I'm happy to take your word for it that there is a noise and you have much better hearing than the both of us, I don't think it's safe to head straight towards a loud noise, which is sure to be crawling with walkers."

Jessica considered that for a moment, but then she caught sight of something and pointed. "There."  
Victor and Rita swivelled round where they stood to see a group of maybe four walkers shuffling towards an unknown destination, having not seen the trio at all.

"They must have heard us," Rita said, speaking out what everyone was thinking. "That must mean that they hear something, because why else would they completely blank three meals?"  
The thoughtful silence revealed the sounds of more shuffling feet, and the trio turned to see a larger group of walkers approaching for behind, who were definitely going for them and not the sound.

"Shit, run!" shouted Victor, who took off with Jessica and Rita in fast pursuit. The walkers followed keenly, licking their lips as they increased speed. The noise became noticed by Victor and Rita, who spotted more walkers headed towards the noise. It dawned on them that there were dozens of them in groups, all heading towards the noise. Some changed course and went after the trio, adding to the chase.

The house couldn't be far now, maybe a mile. But it would be difficult to reach as the total number of walkers as they got closer to the noise. Soon they were surrounded and had to sprint past to avoid being grabbed. It didn't take long for them to be in the middle of a horde, where half of them had seen them and half of them hadn't. They had to find a way out quickly or risk becoming trapped in the centre of the pack.

Jessica weaved through, losing sight of her husband and Rita. In the dark, they were difficult to tell apart from walkers, so all she could do was hope that they were close by.

* WD * WD *

Eileen stared up at the seemingly empty house in front of her, distracted by the distant sound of a car alarm. The front door was boarded up, and the windows were too high to climb up to. She was contemplating another way to get in when she spotted someone in the distance, approaching slowly. She knew instantly by the way they were shuffling along that it was a walker, even though she could barely see anything in the dark. It was more or less a silhouette she could see.

But then other silhouettes appeared, blocking out what little light was left from the sunset. There were so many of them, steadily getting closer and closer. Before she could really think about what to, she quickly took cover behind the house, terrified. There had to be another way in.

She crept round the side of the house, irrationally fearing that she might make too much noise. They must have already seen her, so there was point in wasting time sneaking around, but she couldn't help herself. She spotted a potential entrance in the form of a back door, but turning the handle and barging against it proved useless. A last chance showed itself in the form of a trap door, but she had her doubts. It wasn't like getting in had been made easy already, so what was the likelihood of getting in now.

She tugged on the handles, and felt some slight movement. The doors were heavy though surprisingly, so she released one and worked all her strength into opening just one, when she looked to see if any walkers were approaching and caught sight of someone running.

She let go of the door and pulled the gun out, pointing it at the running person. They stopped running and held their hands up in surrender, slowly walking forward. It was impossible to tell who they were from a distance because it was too dark, but as they got closer it became clearer. She lowered the gun, thrilled.

Lenny grinned at her. "Need help with that door?"

* WD * WD *

Rita was lost in the darkness, desperately searching for Victor and Rita. Walkers passed her, not realising that she was a possible food source, so she didn't push her luck by calling out for help. She could be dead in seconds if she made the wrong move.

All hope was gone for her. She didn't have the energy to keep going in this cruel world, so she stopped moving, just to see how the walkers would react. Nothing. They had forgotten her in their determination to reach the noise. For now, she could rest in peace. She leant against a tree and sunk to the ground, regaining her breath slowly. Fear didn't help, as her incredibly fast heartbeat made it hard to consume the air around her, so she had to take it nice and slow. She just wanted to stop, to end this nightmare that she had been abandoned in. Victor and Jessica would be better off without her.

But her fear of death overcame her fear of the walkers. She didn't want to keep going, but she didn't want to die in the middle of the woods as a diseased human fed on her flesh. That wasn't the Christian way to go.

She still had her gun in her hands. As long as she had bullets to shoot, she wasn't going to give up. Those walkers weren't going to win without a fight.

She recuperated by the tree as walkers passed her ignorantly. She waited, prepared to shoot if she had to.

* WD * WD *

The walker powered forward, getting closer to the noise. It was ready for food, desperate to eat and drink something. Its throat was dry and its stomach ached horribly. It was time to eat soon, or it would die. It saw something in the corner of its eye, and slowly turned to see what it was…

… a human appeared and stabbed a knife right into its eye. It crumpled, dead before the pain could register. It sunk to the ground as the knife was pulled out.

Grant grinned savagely, wiping the blood on some leaves. He looked around for more walkers to kill, but none of them were interested in him. They were too focused on the car alarm in the distance, most likely set off by that idiot, Becky. He decided that if by some fluke Lenny's head wasn't on a stick and he didn't have Eileen when he got back, he would just have to murder that irritating girl when he got back. She was of no use to the group whatsoever, and all she accomplished was a romance with a coward who took pity on her, and of course, buggering everything up all the time. Part of him wished that he didn't find Lenny and Eileen now.

He walked forward, careful not to get too close to the packs of walkers, instead picking off the ones on their own. By the time he stopped walking, a trail of bodies coursed through the woods. It was all a game to him. Might as well have fun with what's left of the world.

A small cottage stood maybe a hundred metres from him. He knew that the girl was in there, pleased with herself that she had found it and got inside. There was a possibility that Lenny was there too, sadly trying to pretend she was the daughter he never had. It was pathetic. These sorts of people shouldn't be allowed to bear children.

Grant grinned again. He was the one who was going to stop them burdening society, after all.

Briefly playing with his knife, he ignored the walkers and they ignored him as he slowly walked towards the cottage, fantasising about how to kill Lenny.


	18. Chapter 18: The Broken Silence

Victor reached the cottage, but realised in horror that he had lost Jessica and Rita. They must have gotten caught in the swarm of walkers, and Jessica didn't know where the house was. He couldn't lose her again. He couldn't go through it again. He turned around, ready to head back into the swarm…

… a silhouette of a man appeared, raising a gun towards him.

He jumped out of the way as a bullet buried itself into the brickwork of the cottage, alerting the walkers with its loud noise. They all changed their course, heading towards the cottage. The man who had fired the gun swore and ran off, escaping the swarm.

Victor hid behind the back of house in hope of avoiding the walkers, but they were coming from all sides. The house was surrounded, and they were closing in fast. There was nowhere to go.

All of a sudden, a basement door he hadn't seen before was thrown open, and out jumped Lenny, staring in surprise at the new arrival.

"Where the fuck have you been?" he exclaimed, lowering a gun he had pointed at him. "Get inside, quick!"  
"I can't. Jessica and Rita are still out there! I have to find them!"  
"Wait, they're alive? But…"  
"I know… I know, we haven't got time for this, I can't go in there, I have to find them."  
"Okay, I'm coming with you, then."

Before Victor could argue, Lenny ran back inside and grabbed some things, quickly reappearing with Eileen in tow.  
"Please don't go, it's not safe," she begged, tugging on his arm. She didn't realise Victor was there.  
"It's the right thing to do, Eileen. Trust me. Lock this door in whatever way you can, don't let anyone in until they tell you they are. If you don't believe them don't let them in. Understand?"  
She nodded fearfully.  
"Okay then, get inside and be safe. We'll be back later." He hugged her and ran off with Victor.  
"Good luck!" she shouted after them, but she quickly regretted it as walkers approached. She slammed the door shut and wedged a broom in between the handles.

* WD * WD *

Jessica ran as fast as her exhausted legs would carry her, terrified of the groans behind her. They were getting further away but she couldn't run forever. Her only hope now was to hide somewhere in a ditch. A gunshot pierced the familiar sounds of shuffling and groaning, and she feared that it was a single shot before someone was devoured by a pack. It could be Victor or Rita who had been caught. She could hardly go back and save them, so all she could was honour their memory by keeping alive, which was easier said than done.

Her lungs were on fire, and her knees were struggling under the weight of her body. It wouldn't be long now before she surrendered to the chase, and gave in to the walkers. She had no choice in the matter. She was hardly Usain Bolt.

The darkness deceived her, and she lost her footing. Before she knew what was happening, she was sent tumbling down a hill, knocking in to loose branches. Everything was a whirlwind, until it all just stopped moving as she crashed into a tree. She was knocked unconscious by the collision, alone and unable to help herself. The walkers continued their hunt, steadily getting closer to where she lay.

* WD * WD *

Karen opened her eyes, but it made little difference. It was now pitch black, with the stars shining bright in the night sky. The car alarm had stopped, and there were no sounds of walkers shuffling past. She was all alone.

She had landed badly earlier, so getting up wasn't easy as pain shot up her side. She knew she wasn't going to be up to running, so she took it slow, climbing up from her hands and knees. It took her a few minutes to get standing again, but the effort had tired her out. She took small steps, taking deep breaths and clutching her hip.

The bite had gotten worse. She felt much weaker and she knew for sure now, that this was the end. She had maybe, a few hours at most. That was all. At least Sam and Phillip had gotten away, because they stood less chance of getting bitten together. Maybe they would find Lenny and tell him about how she had tried to save them, or something that made her sound good. She wanted to at least be remembered for something good. There were too many bad memories.

A gunshot overwhelmed her ears and she clutched them in pain, silently praying that it was only one and the person firing wouldn't do it again. She could no longer take loud noises. The next time she wanted to hear a gunshot was when she was being put down. That reminded her that she had had her gun confiscated during her imprisonment. That pissed her off. Now she had to die the long and painful way.

Mercifully, no more gunshots followed, so she was able to continue her slow walk. She did worry slightly who the gunshot was for, as she did remember that Grant hadn't been there when the camp had overrun again. He must have gone after whoever Hugh had kept talking about. Maybe he had taken a shot at them. Or maybe it was simple as someone had fired a single bullet at just one walker. Not that she should care. She was dying anyways, so why bother pondering about who fired the gun and who at.

She had been walking for roughly fifteen minutes when she saw a building in the very far distance, and hope filled her. If Sam and Phillip were going to take shelter, they would choose a house or cabin in the middle of the woods. Anyone would. She powered forward.

* WD * WD *

Eileen jumped when she heard thumping against the door. The walkers had reached the door and they were trying to break through. Knife and gun at the ready, she stood in the middle of the basement, waiting.

Only the thumping stopped. There was a medley of slicing sounds and some bodies slumping to the ground. The answer to whoever had disposed of the walkers was answered as a helpless voice called out:  
"Help! They're getting closer, they're gonna kill us, help!"

She didn't recognise the voice, so she asked. "Who is it?" Maybe it was just wishful thinking that it was someone from the camp, but the response was good.  
"My name's Sam. We've got a little boy with us, help!"  
She had remembered hearing about Sam at the camp, but he had never spoken to her. But the little boy, on the other hand, had to be Phillip. She had thought he was dead, but he had prevailed. She was thrilled.

"Okay, stand back, I'm opening up!" She holstered her weapons and removed the broom from between the handles. She pushed the door open in excitement of some familiar faces…

…Grant tackled her.

She struggled all she could, but the man was much stronger than her, and soon she was pinned down on the floor. She tried to scream, but he locked his hand around her throat, constricting her oxygen supply. He pinned her arms down with his knees so she couldn't reach her weapons.

He grinned at her as she gasped for breath. "You really make kidnapping easy, don't you? I wonder how you haven't died yet, girl."  
With his free hand, he retrieved her weapons and threw them across the basement so they were far from reach. He hoisted her up, pointing his gun to her head while holding a hand over her mouth. She struggled feebly, but he just chuckled in response.

"Come on then. Your daddy's waiting."

He led her out of the basement and back out into the woods quietly, with no one around to stop them.


	19. Chapter 19: Little Talks

"Jessica! Jessica!" bellowed Victor, and Lenny was quick to clasp a hand over his mouth. Walkers looked briefly in their direction, but Lenny had pulled Victor out of sight. The walkers continued to follow where the noise used to be coming from. Lenny let go of Victor.

"Don't call out, you idiot!" he whispered frantically to the desperate husband. "It's dangerous enough as it is without you making us targets!"  
"My wife is out there, in danger. I will take whatever risks I have to!"  
"Don't you think she'd prefer it if you were alive when she found you?"  
That shut Victor up.  
"Now come on, let's go… quietly this time."

The pair prepared to rush through the walkers, but when they looked to see how many were there, there were none. They had all passed by.  
"Good, they're gone at last. Now we can look safely." Lenny set off with Victor behind him, hunting for an exhausted pensioner and a lost, pregnant thirty year old.

* WD * WD *

Sam held Phillip's hand firmly to make sure they didn't get separated. They had already lost Karen and all they had left was each other. But luck was in their favour, because they had passed all the walkers, leaving them to travel with less threat.

Phillip was quietly sobbing, thinking about the events of the day. He had done well with the car alarm, but although his actions had freed his comrades, Karen was on borrowed time and had been abandoned by the two of them, and Calvin was dead, most likely in a walker's stomach at the current moment. At least Hugh was dead too, along with his hopeless minions. Sam stopped running, pulling the boy to a halt.

"What is it?" he asked innocently, wiping his eyes with his dirty sleeve.  
"I just… wanted to slow down, I guess," replied Sam, not entirely sure why he had stopped himself. All he could think of was that he was tired and they both needed a rest. It had been a long day. Phillip spoke up. "Could I have done it differently?"  
Sam was confused. "Done what differently?"  
"Rescued you. I mean, people are dead because of what I did, and I just… don't know if I could have done it differently."

Sam ruffled his hair. "No, you couldn't. Sure, your actions will have repercussions, but you didn't have a choice. And you saved our lives, I might add." He realised what he had said too late. Phillip looked up at him with those big, childish eyes.  
"Only yours. Not Karen's."  
"No, you're right. Not Karen's. But you saved mine, and I am grateful for that. I'm proud of you for that. And Karen would be too."  
Phillip smiled, somewhat weakly. "Thank you."  
"No. Thank _you_."

In a move that surprised Sam, Phillip hugged Sam, holding on tight. Initially surprised, Sam reciprocated the hug awkwardly, finding the small boy's size to make for an uncomfortable embrace.  
"You're really nice," said Phillip, "even though you're a man-whore."  
Sam broke off the hug. "Hang on, what did you say?"  
"You know, when someone goes around and has se…"  
"Yeah, yeah, okay, I get the gist of it," interrupted Sam, uncomfortable with hearing a twelve year old talk about sex. "But, how am I a man-whore?"

"I wasn't asleep last night at McDonalds. I heard everything."  
He didn't know how to reply. "Wow, okay, that's not good. I feel slightly embarrassed right now. Maybe a little ashamed."  
"Why ashamed?"  
"Because her husband had been alive only two nights before."  
"It was her choice. Don't be ashamed of it."  
"She is, though. She won't even look at me."  
"At least she had some fun before she died."

The deadpan, monotone voice was unsettling coming from a young boy, who seemed perfectly at ease with discussing a thirty year old man's sex life. He continued. "Why did you do it if you were ashamed?"  
"Because… I thought that I could be dead the next day, and I was attracted to her. That's about all I can think of."  
"Okay."  
"What do you mean, okay?"  
"Okay, as in 'I understand'."  
"How can you understand? You're twelve."  
"I have used the Internet before."  
"Right, this conversation stops right now. Let's go."

"Okay," replied Phillip, who shrugged and followed Sam, a man not entirely sure of whether or not he had just had a conversation about his sex life with a minor.

* WD * WD *

Lenny and Victor both stopped, and stared. It was the first walker they had seen for ten minutes. It shuffled forwards in the distance, heading towards where all the other walkers had been going. Victor asked the question they were both afraid to answer.

"Do you think it's Jessica?"  
"No, she'll be fine, I'm sure of it. That will just be a stray walker, surely." Lenny took a step forward and landed on a twig that snapped underneath his shoe. The walker swivelled round and shuffled towards them.

"It could be Jessica. Please don't be Jessica…" Victor was panicking, his mind set on the walker being the reanimated corpse of his pregnant wife. But Lenny had other ideas. Knife at the ready, he waited for the walker to get close enough. It took a while, but eventually it was in the right position and he plunged the knife into its skull. It sagged and collapsed to the ground as he pulled the knife out.

The moon shone down on the ground, and the walker's head was illuminated in the light. Victor stared in disbelief, while Lenny looked away in shame.  
"Isn't that Mira?" asked Victor, and seeing Lenny's reaction, put two and two together. "That's a bullet in her head, so someone must have done it, and I doubt it was her. Was it you?"

Lenny didn't reply. "Oh my god, you son of a bitch! You killed this girl?"  
"A lot's happened while you've been gone, Vic."  
"So much so that you that you've killed this girl twice now?"  
"It was kill or be killed, both times!"  
"Now I find that hard to believe. You've got some explaining to do."

Lenny sighed and walked off, completely ignoring Victor. Victor raised a gun to his gun. "Stop or I'll shoot."  
Lenny stopped. "You've got to be kidding me."  
"No, I'm not. Tell me why. Why did you kill this girl?"  
"Like I said, kill or be killed."  
"Why was she going to kill you?"  
"Because they want Eileen."  
"So that little girl's the cause of all our problems. There's barely any of us left because of that girl?"  
"No, actually. It's… hell, I'm gonna have to tell you everything, now."

Lenny sighed once again, taking deep breath. "We're gonna be here for a while, so I suggest you put that gun down and listen. Then it's your turn."

As Victor lowered the gun, Lenny told him everything.


	20. Chapter 20: Reunion

Jessica was nowhere to be found. Victor had slowly sunk into a depressive shell, and Lenny followed him silently, not sure how to console him. They had both lost their wives, the difference being that Victor had found his safe and sound, and then lost her again, where she was most likely dead. At least Victor had had a chance to see his wife one last time. Lenny hadn't been given that luxury.

Their conversation earlier had ended abruptly. Victor hadn't shown much interest in Eileen's immunity, but showed signs of emotion after the revelation of Hugh's true intentions. Lenny had at least expressed surprise at Jessica and Rita being alive, but once Victor had found out he wasn't a threat to his safety, he had stopped caring. They had merely continued their search, only this time in silence.

No walkers were to be seen where they were, as they had all either headed toward the car alarm or followed the various gunshots. There had been no gunshots for a while now, so there was an eerie silence throughout the woods. It was dark, cold, miserable… and quiet. It always felt too quiet, like a walker was going to appear at any random moment and overpower them.

Victor slipped and fell onto his backside, sliding down a hill before stopping himself by grabbing hold of a tree. Lenny cautiously clambered over and helped him. That was when they caught sight of an unmoving body resting against a tree halfway down the outcrop. Victor rushed over, tripping once again and rolling slightly. He dug into the ground with his feet and hands, holding firm. He got close to the body. Lenny watched from up top. "Can you tell who it is?" he called out.

Victor didn't reply for a while, staring at the body. He felt for a pulse and moved their head so that it was illuminated by the light. "It's Jessica!"  
Lenny was relieved, breathing out heavily. "Is there a pulse?"  
"Yeah, I checked already!"

Jessica stirred, dazing for a bit. She opened her eyes to her husband hunched over her. She smiled. "Hey," she slurred, as if she had a hangover. "Where the hell have you been?"  
"Oh, thank God you're okay." He embraced her softly, scared to cause her pain. She jumped up suddenly, breathing fast. "Oh no, the baby…"

They both knew. There was no chance it survived the fall down the hill. But Victor smiled, not wanting to upset her. "Never mind that, it's you that matters."  
"But, it was your baby."  
"Right now, you're what matters. Forget the baby. I'm just glad you're safe."

She could see it in his eyes. Even though she was barely conscious, she could still spot a deep sadness that he was trying to be hidden. His chance of fatherhood had been taken away from him. She didn't comment on it. She kissed him weakly, and he responded. Lenny turned away, wishing he didn't have to be the third wheel that they had forgotten was there. All that was changed in an instant.

A single gunshot made everyone jump, as it wasn't that far. Lenny knew where it had come from, but what mattered was who had fired it.  
"I'm sorry, I've gotta go check that out," he said. "It could be Eileen."

Victor nodded as a response, knowing that it was the right thing to do. Lenny took off into the night.

* WD * WD *

"Did you hear that?" said Sam, referring to a gunshot that had just gone off.  
"It was hard not to," replied Phillip, looking towards where the sound had come from. "Should we go check it out?"  
"It doesn't seem safe, but…"  
"It could be someone from the camp. They might have been forced out by Hugh."  
"If not killed."

Phillip walked off towards the direction of the noise.  
"Where are you going?" said Sam, surprised at the boy's actions.  
"Well, I want to know who it was."  
"Whoever fired could have been attacked by walkers!"  
"Then let's go save them. I don't know, I'm going there anyway and you're not stopping me."

Sam sighed and followed the boy. He had effectively given in to this surprisingly courageous, if slightly rebellious boy, so that they could possibly walk right into a pack of walkers and be devoured. But it was still a better plan than wandering aimlessly through the woods in hopes of a safe haven.

* WD * WD *

Grant ignored the gunshot, dragging Eileen along with him. She had given up resisting her captor, as all it did was wear her out, and make him chuckle at her feeble struggles. She would enjoy killing him if she had the chance.

They had been walking for quite some time now, and he showed no signs of getting tired. There was little chance of him slipping up and making a mistake, giving her an opportunity to attack him and escape. He wouldn't let her escape, if his life depended on it. And apparently, it did, because Hugh's orders were not to be taken lightly.

It was getting light, and the rays of the Sun could be seen slowly appearing through the trees. It would be morning soon, which brought nothing but more of the hell they were all forced to live in. For her, it was going to be more than hell. She would be powerless to stop it if she was put back in that building. They would take precautions. She would never get out again, and no one would help her. She had to get away soon, or her fate would be sealed.

Grant probably had no idea where he was going, as he had only ever travelled by the roads. He just had to keep walking until he exited the woods, so that he could then find his way back to base. That wasn't made easy by the fidgety girl in his arms. She was little more than a nuisance, but still he wished that he could just kill her and walk back in peace. She was ruining the beautiful silence that could come with walking through the woods in the night/early morning. He would exact his revenge when they got back to base.

"Oh, is that a road I see?" teased Grant, trying to keep up his tough-guy persona. Indeed, it was a road he could see in the distance, merely a few hundred metres away. He would be thrilled to be on hard ground and in the light. He had struggled to see where he was walking before, so to be able to see completely clearly was like a dream to him. No doubt the girl would spoil the affect.

They made it out into the open, and Grant jokingly cheered. He spotted a house in the distance, with a sign saying 'Greene' on it placed far in front of it at the entrance. It looked like a farm, at that house looked huge. All that food and comfort waiting for him… how could he refuse?

"Alright then, we're gonna take a little break, girl. I'm starving, and could do with a bit of kip. You don't mind, do you?"  
Given that his hand was over her mouth, she was hardly in a position argue. He chuckled again. "Thought you'd be fine with it. Now come on, that king size bed's waiting for me."

He dragged her towards the house, ignorant of the stray walkers lurking behind the trees.

* WD * WD *

Lenny jogged back to the cottage, trying to preserve his energy for the possibility of a struggle occurring. He could never be too careful. Danger lurked everywhere. Within a short amount of time, he could see the cottage from a short distance, so he slowed down and prepared his weapons. He had a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other. He was ready for any surprises.

It took another few minutes to reach the cottage, because he was taking it slow, trying to make as little noise as possible so that he could hear if someone else was making noise. He heard nothing, which calmed him a little bit. He didn't want to have to fight anyone. He was exhausted and tired of killing.

The trap door was wide open and bodies littered the entrances, covered in large gashes. One had a bullet lodged in its brain. A trail of blood led down the steps and into the basement. He followed carefully, waiting for an attack. He reached the end of the trail, at two feet. He leant down in front of me, straining to see the face…

…Karen feebly smiled at him.

"Boy, am I glad to see you," she said, barely conscious.


	21. Chapter 21: The Circle Of Life

"Careful, careful, that's it," said Victor, pretty much speaking to himself. Jessica was still groggy from her fall, so she had taken to ignoring his utterances unless they were actually important. She didn't need to be careful, because he was doing all the work for her. He was literally carrying her in a baby lift up the steep hill, while she just rested in his arms, not entirely confident that he wouldn't lose his footing and send them both sprawling down the hill. But speculating only brought her worry, so she took to closing her eyes and trying to fall asleep.

Far too much was on her mind. While her brain wasn't working at its usual capacity for the time being, she was still fraught with concern for Rita and Lenny. The aging woman was lost in the woods most likely surrounded by walkers, so it was reasonable to presume her dead. And the distraught widower was searching for whoever had fired a gunshot, heading back into the swarm that they had all tried desperately to escape. She had gotten lucky – if that was one way of putting it – by tumbling down the hill, because the walkers had lost her and moved on in hunt for other prey. Lenny and Rita might not be as 'lucky'.

And of course there was the baby. The baby that was now a non-existent burden on her survival. As much as she had feared the events that would occur with giving birth in the apocalypse… it was still her child. It would have been loved and cared for by her and Victor, regardless of the circumstances. The heartache and terror would be worth it all for those small moments of joy, when she could hold her beautiful baby while in the arms of her loving husband. But it was all a dream that she secretly knew would never come true, no matter the situation she was in. It wouldn't go as smoothly as she desired even if it was how everything used to be, before strangers reanimated as ravenous freaks and ruined everything. She knew: she was not destined to be a mother. It wasn't God's plan. She just wished he wouldn't have to be such a dick about it and cut her some slack. He could have at least let her have a normal miscarriage or not allowed her to get pregnant in the first place. Making her fall down a hill and get concussion was highly unnecessary. But God was always one for grand – if controversial – gestures.

"Okay, we're up," spoke Victor once again to Jessica but really to himself, bringing her out of her lulling daydream (sort of nightdream, but it was the same thing pretty much). She opened her eyes and looked up at her husband, exhausted from the trek up the steep death trap whilst carrying his groggy wife. He put her down gently on the grass, where she flopped feebly, devoid of energy. He joined her on the ground, also needing a rest.

They didn't speak for the time that they were lying down next to each other. They didn't need to. Everything they wanted to talk about could wait for later. For now, they could relax. All of that could have been ruined by a walker interrupting and taking them by surprise, but they were relying on the possibility that that didn't happen. And it didn't. They were left to hold each other for a short while, which was the most amount of peace they had had in a long time, even more so than when they were at the Greene residence. Being all on their own together, tired and vulnerable, destroyed all doubt they had once felt about their marriage.

And all it took was the apocalypse to bring them back together. But perhaps they would have preferred to have been given the option of marriage counselling.

* WD * WD *

Lenny stared in disbelief at the woman resting against the wall in the basement of the cottage, who was somehow his wife. For a split second he considered the ludicrous idea that it was an apparition of his dead wife, and that he was just having an insane hallucination. But the Karen in front of him was very much real. And hurt.

It was difficult to see in the dark, but the trail of blood stood out slightly, leading up to where her wrist was. He knew that she was bitten, and he felt cheated. His wife had miraculously returned to him, only to die on him and return as one of the freaks that had ended her life in the short place. It was a cruel circle of life.

"Karen… where were you, honey?" He could think of no explanation as to how she had ended up there, but he wanted to steer the conversation away from discussing her inevitable and upcoming death. She caught on to what he was doing and went along with it, telling him in short her journey to the city and back, and Hugh's true colours. It succeeded in angering him that the tyrant could do such a thing to poor Calvin, but he kept a lid on his rage because they didn't have much time left together. He briefly spoke to her about his little adventures, leaving out Eileen's immunity and – as it appeared, given that she wasn't in the building – choice to leave Lenny and head off on her own. Maybe she was doing it to keep him safe. But now he wanted to find her, but as it all the death around them had been caused by her arriving at the camp, she could wait. For now, he was having his reunion with his wife, the one that he had dreamt about ever since that night at the camp, back when they had all been together.

"Where's Eileen?" coughed Karen, who was shockingly pale. She didn't have long left.  
"Gone, honey. She's gone."  
"Where has she gone?"  
"I don't know."  
"I want you to promise me something."

The sentence had taken him by surprise. "Okay, what is it?" he asked.  
"Find her. Find that girl and look after her. Care for her like she was your own daughter. She'll need a daddy."  
"I thought you'd ask me to do that for Phillip."  
"He has Sam for that. He's a good man. He'll take care of him."  
"What if I can't find her?"  
Karen smiled. "You will. I know you will."

"What if… what if she's dead?"  
" Then you bury her. We bury the ones we love, right?"  
"Where'd you get that from?"  
"Something I heard someone say in that last group we were with. Remember them?"  
Lenny chuckled. "Yeah, they were quite the collection. That girl who kept putting make-up every day until she ran out?"  
Karen returned the chuckle, if a bit weakly. "And that sweet Asian boy who carried a pizza delivery bag around with him? In fact, it was him who I took that saying from. He was a sweet boy."

Their sentimental moment was interrupted by a rapid fit of coughing from Karen, who dropped once she was finished, barely still alive. Lenny – feeling the tears trying to force their way down his face – took her hand gently, and looked her in the eyes. She saw so much love in his.

"I love you, so much." He sobbed, sniffing to try and hold in the tears. "I promise you that I'll find that girl. I'll find her and care for her and be her daddy, all for you."  
She had started crying too. She could have told him then about that night in McDonalds, but she wanted her last few minutes with him to be compassion. She didn't doubt her love for him anymore. It was still there. It had just been hard to find until now.

"I love you too. I know you won't let this world change you. You're not just a good man, you're a great man. You're my Superman."  
Tears streamed down both of their cheeks, but they both did their best to hold it together. For each other.  
She spoke her last words. "I'll save you a seat up there."

Lenny held Karen's hand until the end. "Goodbye Karen," he wept, planting a passionate, gentle kiss on her extremely pale forehead. She smiled, and closed her eyes.


	22. Chapter 22: Bad Company

Eileen was sat at the table, opposite Grant. She devoured the food in front of her, starving from a lack of food all day. She didn't care what her brutish captor thought: he could go to hell before he judged her. But he didn't act much differently. Although he also tore into his food like a savage animal, he still kept the gun pointed at her with one hand and lifted food into his mouth with the other. Even with all the food in front of him, he didn't get distracted from the task at hand. He was organised, so it would be made difficult to slip away or attack him.

Only Grant had spoken in a while. After forcing into the house, he had plonked her down on a seat and ordered her to eat at gunpoint. While she knew it was against his orders to kill her, she didn't put it past him to hit her, or maybe shoot her in the leg. He was a crazed man who would do whatever it takes to achieve his mission. Shooting her in the leg might even make it easier for him, because she would be in too much pain and be too exhausted to struggle as he carried her back to base. That meant that she had to be very careful around her captor. She would only get one chance. She couldn't mess it up.

She finished her plate of cold ham out of the packet and sat there in silence, watching him eat. He never looked down at his food, always keeping his eyes on her. They spent a long time just staring at each other, waiting for him to finish. When he eventually did, he got up from the table, took both plates and dumped them in the sink so hard that they smashed into pieces. He then got himself a glass and turned the tap, letting water overflow the glass. He turned the tap off and returned to his seat. Eileen spoke.

"Why do you take orders from my father?" she asked inquisitively, genuinely curious. "You're a big guy, didn't think you'd take orders. Thought you'd be giving them."  
Grant drank his drink in one gulp, placing the glass firmly down on the table. Everything he did looked threatening. "Well right now, I'm not taking orders. I'm giving them. So I won't be answering your questions." He sounded so calm, but she knew that he was anything but. That led her to her next question.  
"It's pretty clear that you just want to kill me and save yourself a lot of hassle. But my father doesn't want you to, so you haven't yet. What is it about him that makes you follow his orders? Is it fear?"

"Are you deaf?" was his reply, getting up for another drink. "I'm not answering your questions," he continued as he turned the tap once again. As he turned the tap off, he grinned. "But I will say one thing." He put his glass down and leant over Eileen. "Your daddy never said I couldn't restrain you if I have to. So, if you, say, fight back, I've been given the all-clear to shut you up." He stroked her cheek slowly, making her shiver. "Now that's a beautiful face you have. Shame if I had to mess it up." He gripped her by the chin, drawing her face up to his. "But remember, anything I do to you, will be because you weren't being the good little girl your daddy raised you to be." She pulled away, but his grip was strong, causing her pain. As he saw the fear in her eyes, he released her, and she fell back to her seat. He returned to his.

She knew that every time she spoke to him she was taking a big risk, but she would rather go out trying than accepting the dark future waiting for her. "My father never raised me," she said defiantly, daring to tell her story. "All the good parenting came from my mother. Dad would just come home from work late, make Mom get him a drink, and then he'd sit in front of the TV for the rest of the night. He didn't talk to me much. I always got this feeling that he didn't want me there, like I was a burden. I was the daughter I never wanted." She expected Grant to chuckle at her story or tell her to stop, but surprisingly, he was listening intently. She continued.

"He wasn't fond of women. He only married Mom because he'd gotten her pregnant and he thought it was the right thing to do. He never loved her really, and after I was born things got worse. I used to hear her squeals of pain in the night, and his grunting. I had to listen to all of it, and then act like I was completely oblivious the next morning. Like I couldn't see the bruises on my mom, and the way she would jump when he entered the room. He was a bully and a rapist, and I doubt he's changed. He only wants me back so he can use me for his own, twisted goals. This isn't just about my immunity. That was just an excuse. This is why he really wants me back."

Eileen rolled up her sleeves, revealing large bruises all over her arms. "He never hit where it was completely visible. Not to me, anyway. My mom never left the house, so he wasn't concerned about her bruises. But mine were always where no one could see them straight away. I've got more on my back." She nearly started crying, but her company would be less than sympathetic. "I'm his plaything. His slave. When I escaped him and found Lenny, I thought I'd found peace, for once in my miserable life. His group of people didn't hurt me. I didn't know them for long, but it was the most compassion I'd felt in a long time. And now you're taking me back to the man who will make the rest of my short life a living hell."

Grant was silent for a few seconds, before a small smile appeared. "I was warned that you were a convincing liar. You almost had me going there," he chuckled, shaking his head in disbelief. Eileen's heart sunk, not sure if he knew she was telling the truth and was ignoring it or that he just didn't care. Anger consumed her.

"Why would I lie about this?" she yelled, taking him by surprise. "Why would I deliberately bruise myself all over my arms just so that I could make up a lie about it now? I'm telling the truth and you have to believe me, please." She was welling up, but she didn't care anymore. "Please don't make me go back. Please, I'll do anything."

Grant's eyes lit up. "Anything, you say?" He clearly had an idea of what she could do for him, and she knew it wasn't going to be pretty. "Maybe, just maybe, I'll consider letting you go, but you'll have to do something for me, first."  
She trembled slightly, preparing for the horror. "What is it you want me to do?" she sobbed, wiping her eyes.  
In response, he put his hands underneath the table. They returned with his belt, which he placed down on the table. He stood up, grinning as he unbuttoned his jeans.

She gasped. "You were the one who I was going to be forced to…" She couldn't finish the sentence.

His grin had widened. "I've been waiting a long time for this," he growled. "So, are you going to go along with this or will I have to fuck your face up?"

Eileen knew then, that there was no chance Grant was going to let her go.


	23. Chapter 23: The End Is Nigh

Sam and Phillip stood in front of the cottage, surveying for walkers. For the moment there were none to be seen, but they swarmed towards noise. They could be nearby, approaching. The pair wasted no more time, trying the front and back doors to no avail, before stumbling upon a mass of corpses by an open trap door. Sam ventured inside first, telling Phillip to keep out until the all-clear was given.

It was dark inside, and eerily quiet but for some heavy breathing and sniffing at the other side of the room. He had no weapon, so he didn't want to head towards the danger without means of defending himself. "Hello?" he called out, expecting a walker to get up and launch itself at him. Thankfully, there wasn't. A familiar voice replied from the darkness.

"Over here, Sam." Lenny's voice was cracked, full of sadness. He had been crying. That much was clear. Sam approached and saw him hunched over a body, holding its hand. It was too dark to tell who it was.  
"Oh God, is that Eileen?"  
"No, no. Eileen's gone; I don't know where she is. It's Karen."  
Sam was shocked, but he contained his gasp so as to not overdramatize the moment for the grieving Lenny. "We lost her in the woods, I didn't think she'd make it here…"  
"Well, she did. And I got my short-lived, fucking reunion with her."

He started to sound angry, but not so much that he would have an outburst that involved forcing Sam away at gunpoint. He just seemed to be feeling cheated that his reunion with his lost, presumed dead wife, had lasted barely half an hour.  
"How long have you been here?" asked Lenny.  
"I only just got here. Phillip's waiting outside for the all-clear."  
"Don't let him in. I don't want him to see her."

Sam followed his instructions and remained silent, awkwardly stood over him. "Did you fire the gun earlier? Or was it Karen?"  
"Neither. I came here as soon as I heard, and I didn't find a gun anywhere near her. Must've been Eileen fending off some walkers."  
"But there was only one gunshot. Surely she would've used more to fend off…"  
"Just shut up, alright? I need some more time with her before we start 'investigating' a gunshot that doesn't really matter. Go give Phillip the news or something, I don't know. Just… leave me alone." He choked up on the last sentence, so Sam apologised and left the basement. Phillip was waiting for him.

"Is it all clear?"  
"No. No, it's not. You don't want to go in there."  
"Walker?"  
Sam took a moment to answer.

"Not yet."

* WD * WD *

Grant stood over a cowering Eileen, gun in hand while he unzipped his jeans, pointing his crotch towards her face. She pushed her chair back and crashed into the wall, where he rushed to hold her there. They were up close together, her pushing against him while he took pleasure in her helplessness. He pressed the gun up to her cheek.

"You said you'd do anything, right?" he said threateningly, exhaling his hot stinky breath into her face. "Don't pussy out, now. This is what you want, I know it is. So don't pretend that you're some victim here. You want freedom. I want what's rightfully mine."

She responded by spitting in his face. He took a moment to react, wiping his face of her saliva. Then he whacked her across the face with the butt of the gun. She cried out, feeling blood trickle down her cheek.

"You do that again, and you'll wish you'd never been born."  
She nodded, accepting her predicament. He grinned.  
"Alright then. Let's go somewhere a bit more… comfortable."  
He grabbed her arm and pushed her out of the room and up the stairs. The pistol was always pointed at her, giving her no chance to fight back. Her last chance to escape was steadily approaching and she knew she would have to act fast. She was pushed into a bedroom, where she was ordered to sit down. He once again stood over her, his crotch inches from her face.

"You should know what to do from here, girl," he said with menace. "Get to work."  
She looked up at him, getting impatient but looking pleased about the night he had waiting for him. She knew that this was her only chance. It was risky, but it would be worth it in the long run. Taking a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for all hell to break loose, she took her chance… by driving her fist into Grant's groin.

His scream of agony was excruciating and she expected him to accidentally shoot the gun, but he instead keeled over and she dodged as he collapsed onto the bed. She was tempted to grab the gun from him, but it looked like he was holding it tight (as well as clutching his groin), so she decided not to push her luck. She darted for the stairs, thundering down them and slamming into the front door in her desperation. She turned the handle and she was out into the open air. She could escape into the woods…

…if not for the large pack of walkers blocking the way.

Eileen ran back inside and shut the door, about to look for a look when she heard footsteps on the landing. She turned around and saw Grant keeled over, leaning against the landing. He looked at her with fury and aimed the gun at her. She ducked and darted for the dining room as a bullet tore into the wall behind her. He stumbled down the stairs, groaning in pain. She shut the door behind her, heading for the kitchen. There was the sound of the front door bursting open and more gunshots. While he was fending off the walkers, she could escape.

Escaping through the back door, she disappeared into the night, heading for the woods.

* WD * WD *

They approached from afar, getting hungrier with every step they took. There was so much food waiting for him: the anticipation was making them drool.

Their journey to the car alarm had fed them nothing but disappointment, but there was a meal waiting for them at the cottage. Hundreds of walkers followed each other, each preparing for their own personal feast.


	24. Chapter 24: Return

Jessica was finally able to stand on her two feet, regaining her ability to support herself. Still, Victor wasn't taking any chances, so he made her put her arm around him so that she wouldn't fall if she lost her energy and slipped to the ground. And based on how shattered she looked, it was probably better that way.

They were close to the cottage now, barely a hundred metres from it. They took it slowly, taking small steps and leaning against a nearby tree occasionally to maintain balance. Sam spotted them and rushed over, giving a helping hand. Sam put her other arm around his shoulder, he and Victor pretty much carrying her.

"Phillip, watch out and call if you see any walkers," said Sam as he walked past. Phillip nodded and stood outside the trap door as Sam and Victor made the descent down the steps with Jessica round their shoulders. In their haste to get her inside they barely noticed Lenny on the floor holding Karen's hand, entering the house and laying her down on the sofa that Victor had slept on the other night. She muttered her gratitude for the help and quickly fell asleep.

Sam and Victor stared at each other for a little bit, both shocked to see each other. "Where the hell have you been?" asked Sam.  
"Where the hell have you been?" replied Victor, making them both smile. They were about to start a conversation when they heard a clicking sound. They turned, and saw a gun pointed in their direction.

* WD * WD *

Grant emptied his clip into a group of walkers that had entered through the front door. They dropped like flies, not standing a chance against him. But more arrived to take their place, powering their way into the house. They were determined and hungry, refusing to give up without a fight, meaning that he was stuck having to deal with them while the girl had the chance to sneak off into the woods, where death was probably waiting for her. He wanted to be the one to finish her off though. He wanted payback, but it had to wait for now. He reloaded and kept firing.

He finished off the next group and charged at the door, slamming it shut with his shoulder. He found the lock and turned it. The walkers banged against the door violently, growling in defeat. He smirked to himself, then set off out the back door and into the night. He was going to find the girl, and she was going to get her comeuppance.

* WD * WD *

Rita sighed and lowered the gun. "I am getting sick of surprises. Hello, Sam. It's been a while."  
"Well this is unexpected," he replied cheerfully. "How have you been?"  
"Tired. Very, very tired. Those walkers took ages to move on, so I had to wait until they were all gone. I got here a few hours ago and have been resting since."  
"But… why didn't you close the doors?" asked Victor, who didn't seem at all surprised that Rita had somehow made it through the horde of walkers.

Rita looked confused. "I thought I did. I remember wedging a broom across the handles and heading inside."  
"How did Karen get in then? Lenny found her in the basement."  
"I… I didn't see her when I arrived. Was it open when you got here?"  
"Yeah."

Victor realised something and asked Rita a question. "Was it you who fired the gun earlier? Maybe an hour ago?"  
Rita came to the same realisation. "No." She gripped her gun tightly. "So who did? Eileen? Lenny?"  
"Lenny was with us when we heard it. Was it you, Sam?"  
"My weapons were taken back at the camp." Sam quickly explained himself after seeing Rita's bemused expression. "Long story short, Hugh and his group are a bunch of assholes who want Eileen for some reason. Maybe it was Eileen who fired the gun."  
"But Rita got here a few hours ago, and she didn't see Eileen here. The gunshot went off from around here, so it couldn't have been her, unless she's nearby, and I don't think she is."  
"It could have been Grant. He went off to find Lenny and Eileen, so maybe he kidnapped her."

Victor expressed surprise. "Some guy took a shot at me a few hours ago. It must have been him, meaning that he could have got Eileen when Lenny and I went to look for Jessica. That had to have been a few hours ago, and he wouldn't hang around. So, of the people that couldn't have done it, there's me, you two, Jessica, Lenny, Phillip, Eileen and Grant. That leaves Karen and the rest of Hugh's group."  
Sam shook his head. "Karen was unarmed when Lenny found her, he told me. I think Patricia was bitten, Becky and Randy ran off to help her, and I saw Hugh get taken down to the ground by a walker."

"So, Hugh's dead, probably Patricia, maybe Randy and Becky are too," said Rita, her brain racked from all the who-dunnit questions. "We must be missing something here."

"You most certainly are."

The trio turned their heads to the doorway leading into the kitchen, where a man stood with a gun pointed in their direction. He smiled.

"Really, how could you suspect me dead?" moaned Hugh. "I thought you knew me better than that."

* WD * WD *

Phillip didn't realise at first what he was staring at. He strained his eyes in the dark to make out what it was, but then he started to notice that it was moving. Definitely a walker, he thought to himself, ready to go and tell Sam. But just as he was about to turn around and clamber down the steps into the basement, he heard footsteps from outside. The walker he had spotted was too far away to be heard, so he walked around the side of the cottage, expecting to see a few stray walkers. His mouth dropped open in surprise.

There were so many, maybe hundreds, pretty much twenty or thirty metres from the house and closing in fast. They shuffled forwards as one big group, ready to work together as one big group to achieve a common goal: a meal. Phillip sprinted back round the side of the house, where more walkers could be seen from there too. The cottage was soon to be overrun. He jumped down the steps and slammed the doors shut, wedging the broom in between the handles. Lenny turned to look at him. "What's going on?" he asked.

Phillip's heart was pounding, causing him to be out of breath. "We're fucked, basically."


	25. Chapter 25: Limited Options

Jessica stirred, opening her eyes slightly to her surroundings. She was in a small living room, lying on a sofa. Four figures stood near her: she could instantly recognise Rita and Victor, and within a few seconds she remembered seeing Sam before she had been carried into the cottage. But the fourth figure hadn't been there earlier. It was a man who was tall, fierce-looking… and pointing a gun at the other three. She shut her eyes tight again, feigning sleep in the hopes that the intruder wouldn't notice that she was there, and if he did, that she was awake. She listened carefully to the dialogue, waiting for the right moment. Rita spoke first.

"I take it this is Hugh." Sam and Victor nodded in response.  
"Why yes, it is," the intruder replied smugly. "I've been the talk of the town recently, it seems. No matter. I didn't fight my way here and climb through a second-storey – that I had to smash, I might add - just so I could listen to you shame my name. I came for the girl. Where is she?"  
"Didn't you just hear us? She's gone. Your henchman must have taken her."  
"Not that I am to believe a word you say. You have every reason to lie, so give me a reason to believe you."  
"Why would she leave this cottage, the safest place for miles, unless it was by force?" Sam spoke up, crushed that Hugh hadn't perished in the swarm earlier that night. Victor tried to sneakily get his gun out from the back of his jeans, but Hugh noticed.

"Thank you for reminding me, Victor. All of you, weapons down on the floor. Otherwise you'll be on the floor with them.  
Rita and Victor retrieved their guns and knives and reluctantly let them fall to the floor. Hugh raised an eyebrow at Sam.  
"You took my weapons on the road, remember? I haven't exactly had time to rearm myself."  
"Don't get smart with me. Weapons on the ground in five seconds or I put a bullet in you."  
"I'm serious, I'm not armed. Look." Sam emptied his pockets on his jeans and jacket, revealing nothing. He waited for Hugh's response.  
"Turn around."  
Sam complied, swivelling round to show that he wasn't packing heat in the back.  
"Can I turn back now?"

Hugh raised his gun and fired.

Sam cried out in pain as a bullet pierced his thigh, lodging itself in there. He fell to the ground, crashing heavily down on the floor. Rita screamed, grabbing hold of Victor in terror. They watched as he scrambled across the floor in agony, clutching his thigh as blood covered the carpet around him. Hugh groaned in boredom.

"I've been wanting to do that for a long time. Now you two, in there." He pointed his gun towards the kitchen. Victor and Rita walked in hand-in-hand.  
"It will be alright," reassured Victor, more saying it for himself than for Rita. She didn't reply, too occupied by the floods of tears cascading down her cheeks. Hugh pushed them forward, following them in.

"Stop!"

Hugh stopped dead in his tracks as a gun pressed up against the small of his back. "Drop it or I'll drop you," snarled Jessica, ordering him to surrender his weapon. He released it from his hands and it crashed to the ground.  
"On your knees, hands behind your back. Victor, kick the gun away."  
They both followed her orders, surprised by her sudden taking charge.

"Rita, find something to tie him up. He's got a lot of explaining to do."  
The nervous old woman took deep breaths, heading past them and searching through the house for rope or something similarly useful. Victor ran over to help Sam, who had crawled into a corner and was nearly crying. He retrieved his gun from the floor (Jessica had picked up Rita's) and nearly collided with Phillip and Lenny, who came bursting through the door with weapons in hand. Phillip had a gun too, despite all weapons having been taken back when he had been captured. Lenny asked what happened before spotting a figure knelt down in the doorway, with Jessica stood over him.

"Is that Hugh?"  
Victor put his gun in the back of his jeans. "Yeah, he just shot Sam and Jessica got the jump on him. Where did you get that gun, Phillip?"  
"I… I found it in the basement, along with a knife."  
Lenny took notice and stared at the weapons that he was now showing. "Eileen had those earlier."  
"That's Jessica's gun," said Victor. "She must've left it behind when the walkers attacked the camp."  
"So Eileen took it and ran off, then I caught up with her and gave her that knife to protect herself with."

Victor sighed. "So she did get kidnapped then. Why else would she leave those here?"  
"Well it can't have been Hugh, because he wouldn't have come back if he had her."  
Phillip spoke up. "And it couldn't have been Becky, Patricia or Randy."  
"Or Mira." Victor raised an eyebrow at Lenny.  
"So it was Grant then, meaning that he's now long gone with her. There's no chance of finding her, unless she escapes and comes back here."

Phillip made a face at Lenny's comment. "Well, I don't think we should stay here."  
"Why's that?" asked Victor.  
"There's a slight problem."  
"Spit it out."  
"There's about a hundred walkers outside."

Victor took a moment to respond. "Shit" was all he could come up with.  
Lenny took charge. "That doesn't leave us much time then. If we can't find Eileen, we can at least find out where she's being taken."  
"How?"  
"Said asshole down on his knees over there."

"I'm not deaf guys," muttered the out-of-luck intruder. Rita returned with an armful of extension cords.  
"Will this do?"


	26. Chapter 26: Revelations

They started off quietly banging against all entrances of the cottage. The boarded-up windows stayed firm, but the trap door looked ready to be flung open. Jessica guarded it, finding other items to wedge between the handles. The front door was being covered by Victor, who had shoved as much stuff as he could against it to stop the force of the walkers if the wooden boards snapped. Phillip was in charge of the back door, but the walkers weren't interested in that. That left Rita to tend to Sam in the upstairs bedroom, and Lenny to interrogate Hugh. They didn't have much time, though. At any moment their defences could be taken down.

Hugh was constrained in a wooden chair, dozens of cords and wires tight against his body, restricting his movement. Lenny stood over him, knife in hand. For a while they just stared at each other, both desperately wanting to kill the other. But Hugh was a person of interest for now. He knew where Eileen was going to be taken, and he was going to be made to talk, no matter what.

"So," said Lenny casually, keeping a lid on his undying desire to plunge the knife into his prisoner's chest, "this 'base' of yours has become quite important to me. Now, unless you want me to redecorate your face with this knife, I suggest you tell me where it is."  
Hugh grinned, a look of smugness spreading across his face. "You have no idea how important that girl is, do you?"  
"She told me about the immunity. That does not make her a possession."

Hugh scoffed. "In case you hadn't noticed, the world has changed. Normal social rules don't apply any more. You do what it takes to survive. She is the key to survival, Lenny. With her blood we can create a cure. Yes, there are some unpleasant sides to the story, but it is all necessary for the future of mankind. You think I enjoy what I have to do every day? Killing people, chasing little girls so that I can take them back to their abusive daddies?"  
"You sure don't look that beat up about it."  
"I hate it, so much. But I have to put on a brave face, because I need to be strong, and tough. If I'm not then people won't take me seriously and if that happens people die."  
"It seems that the reason people die is because you kill them."

Hugh's smugness was gone, replaced by frustration. "They were in the way of my goal. If I let them live I wouldn't be able to get Eileen. "  
"Well you didn't get her, so it was a waste. You killed people for no good reason, all because you wanted to take a teenage girl back to a man who will take advantage of her."  
"I won't let that happen."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Like I would let Eileen's father be in charge. He thought he was, ordering people around. He's a big guy, violent too, so lots of people followed his orders. But not me, because I'm not afraid of him. He doesn't know how to survive in this world, so I relieved him of his duties."

Lenny had to ask, even though he knew what the answer would be. "Did you kill Eileen's father?"  
Hugh smiled. "Knife to the back, problem sorted. Everyone thinks he's in his own quarters, drinking. Eileen won't exactly miss him. Bet she didn't tell you what he did to her mother."  
"What did he do?"  
"Killed the bitch. Or at least that's what he told us. Whenever someone challenged him, he threatened to do the same to them as he did to his wife. Eileen was never present when he spoke about this."  
"Yeah, that was because he had her locked away, waiting to be raped!"  
"Why are you not pleased? The whole reason she doesn't want to go back there is because her father would be there, but he's in the ground now. There's no threat now, so it's good that she's going back."

Lenny was unconvinced. "She'll never be safe there. She will be as much as a prisoner there as she was there when her father was still alive. With people like you in charge she'll have no hope."  
"Regardless of what you think, it won't make a difference. I am going to make sure that she ends up back at base, because she is a solution to all our problems. You're too soft, Lenny, not able to make the tough decisions. She needs to reproduce if we have a hope in hell of getting our lives back. We have several people with medical experience at base, we even have a midwife! She will be safe, and all that needs to happen is she needs to deliver one baby, and then we will have hope."

"I won't let you. I don't care what it might mean, she is still a girl and I can't allow that to happen."  
Hugh flew off the handle. "You don't get it! I have done so much to get this girl and I won't let you fuck it up! I've trekked through the city; I've set walkers on people, I've murdered and kidnapped people. You wouldn't be involved if you hadn't gone and found her in the first place. Everyone would be alive if you hadn't found her!"

"No, they wouldn't. Eileen had nothing to do with the walkers attacking the camp."  
"She had everything to do with it! Do you think the walkers just followed her there? I set them on your camp, you fucking idiot!"

Lenny paused, clenching the knife tight. "What… did you just say?"  
Hugh faltered slightly, realising what he had just said. Still, he didn't pretend it didn't mean anything or apologise profusely; he told the truth. "We had been looking for her in our cars, and we saw a large pack of walkers chasing a girl down the street. So we followed discreetly and saw the walkers pass round a building. We were going to keep following when we saw you and her appear around that same corner, and you got into a car together. We followed from afar, and we saw your camp on the hill. I knew that it would be unwise to go marching in all guns blazing. I couldn't be sure of how many of you there were. So we drove back to the city, and attracted the attention of as many walkers as possible, and we drove, slowly, towards your camp. We hid while they passed us and stormed your camp, then we followed and took care of them, pretending to be your knights in shining armour, and we went along with the stupid charade. If you hadn't spent your nights outside solemnly looking over the scenery, we could have just snuck in, grabbed Eileen and left. But you didn't. So we went searching for your friends, even though we would have just killed them when we found them, which is actually what we did. Well, we killed Calvin, and took Sam and your wife hostage. And once we got back, you were gone, so I kept your wife as a bargaining tool in case you came back. I haven't seen her, so I assume she's walker food now."

Lenny took a seat on the plush sofa, putting the knife down next to him. He didn't know if he was angry or sad, or both. He just said in a deadpan voice: "Karen's dead. She's in the basement right now."  
Hugh decided not to gloat, mostly because he didn't want to get a knife in the stomach. "No one else has to die," he said empathetically. "I've lost people too. While I didn't like some of them – Mira for example – I was still in charge of them and I let them down. I'm sure that's how you feel too."  
"Don't try to convince me that we're alike."  
"I don't need to, because you know we are. We're both trying to keep our group alive, and we've both failed somewhat. I don't want anyone else to die, so just let me go and find Eileen. Without her you will be safe from us, no longer at threat. You know it's true."

Lenny sighed. "I promised to take care of that girl."  
"Why? She's not your daughter. You only met her a few days ago and half your group's dead because of it. And now you want to go find her, where you will just be running from people desperate to take her back to base. They'll kill you just to get you out of the way. That's the same reason I had for stabbing Calvin and shooting Sam."  
"But what makes you think there'll be anyone left to chase us?"  
"We weren't the only ones out looking for her, you know. There are other groups of people searching the city for her, because she is that important to us. Even if you kill me, it won't make any difference. They'll find her and take her back."

"You're wrong."  
"What about?"  
"Killing you will make a difference."  
"How so?"  
"Because your spy will have no idea what to do."

Hugh chuckled. "Spy? Have you lost the plot?"  
"I was told you said that you had smashed a window to get in here."  
"Yeah. And?"  
"Every window here is boarded up, including the upstairs ones."  
Hugh's heart sunk. "How can you be sure?"  
"I checked, because I had my doubts, and I was right."

"So what if I lied about how I got in. That doesn't mean anything."  
"It means everything, because that would mean that the only way you could've got in is through the trap door."  
Hugh didn't respond, so Lenny continued.  
"You couldn't have broken it open because that would've meant the broom used to hold the handles together would be broken in two. Imagine my surprise when I see it perfectly intact."

Hugh attempted to hide his concern, but there was no lying his way out of this one. Lenny kept going. "Rita let you in and left the door open. Now why did she do that, and why did she lie about it? Remember, I haven't forgotten about the knife."

Hugh knew the game was up. "Rita used to be a resident at base," he confessed. "She never met Eileen but she had heard about her before. I guess she must have put two and two together when she saw her with you. We've spoken before, but it was never pleasant. She didn't like that her daughter was being encouraged to learn to fight. She argued with me about letting her go out and kill walkers but eventually she took matters into her own hands. She knew that speaking to Eileen's father would be a bad idea, so she ransacked some food from the supplies and tried to convince her daughter to go with her, but she refused. Her daughter reported her to Eileen's father and he banished her from base. They didn't even say goodbye to each other; she just left and never came back."

Lenny was confused. "But why did she let you in and pretend not to know you?"  
"Because I lied to her. I told her that I had come with a message from her daughter. It was a crap lie but she believed it because as a mother she wanted to know that her flesh and blood was okay. When she let me in I told her that I wouldn't give her the message until she followed my orders: to leave the door open and set a trap for whoever walked in. She pretended not to know me because I told her to. She thought that I was just going to interrogate them briefly and then leave, but I lied to her again. I was going to kill her when that girl got up and made me drop my weapons."

There was the sound of footsteps and Rita appeared around the corner of the doorway. "Sam's gotten worse, I was wondering about checking the kitchen drawers for antibiotics or painkillers or something. Is that alright?" For just a second she looked at Hugh, and Lenny knew it was true.  
"Rita, don't lie to me," he said. "I know you've been listening."

"And you believe a word he says?" she asked furiously. "I did and look what happened. So just kill him. I know where base is anyways. Just get rid of him now, please. He'll lie his way out of that chair and more people will die because of it. Don't make my mistake."  
Lenny was furious himself. "You knew where base was this whole time and you didn't tell us?"  
"I was ashamed! I didn't want to be connected to that place because I knew that you would just assume I was one of them, trying to kidnap Eileen or something."  
"You sure took an interest in her."  
"I wanted to protect her, but I hardly got a chance, did I? Those walkers showed up and I got separated, so I left for the woods and found the cottage. I felt so selfish about my actions at base, so I wanted to redeem myself by doing something good. I was about to head back to the camp when I saw Victor outside, so I saved him and went off looking for Jessica. I got back to the cottage on my own and locked myself inside, waiting to hear someone call out. I heard Hugh and he told me that my daughter was looking for me, so I let him in, but it was all a cruel lie. I went along with his plans, and now Sam's bleeding out and it's my entire fault."

Hugh snored jokingly, but no one found it funny. "What, everyone's speaking so fast, I can't keep up."  
Lenny ignored him. "Don't be ashamed, then. Just tell me where base is, before I go insane from all these speeches."  
"Okay," Rita said, relieved that someone understood her side of the story. "You know the Church near Hampton Street?"  
Lenny made a face.  
"It's a few blocks away from the McDonalds."  
"Not entirely sure…"  
"As you enter the city on that road that is near the McDonalds, take a left by the office building labelled 'Hampton', then…" She saw Lenny's befuddled expression and sighed. "This is going to take forever."

There was a large smashing sound and a board on one of the windows crashed to the ground. A walker's arm reached through the gap, trying to make a space.  
"We don't have forever."


	27. Chapter 27: Bite

Grant tore through the woods, charging past walkers like a battering ram. They dropped like dominoes, unable to equal his force. They recovered from the attack and stumbled after him, but he was too fast, gone before they had a chance. A small army of them were left on the ground in his wake, slow to get back up and follow him at a speed that would never be close to his. It didn't take long for him to lose all the walkers, so he would be able to see Eileen better as there were no crowds anymore. He grinned as he saw a moving shape far ahead of him, sure that he had her. He removed his gun from its holster and charged after her, waiting to get a clear shot.

She looked back and saw him, increasing speed. But it was no use. Grant would catch up to her soon, and he would put a bullet in her. She disappeared behind a tree, gone from his sight. He couldn't lose her now, he was too close. He vaulted over a fallen tree, and stopped. He raised his gun, listening for sounds. He heard some rustling nearby. Behind him. He turned round…

…he caught a glimpse of Eileen's face before a branch slammed into his face. Everything went black.

Eileen watched him fall, and then quickly checked he was unconscious. Fortunately, he was. She retrieved his gun and got up to leave. She looked back at him, his motionless figure. The chase could end at that moment. If she just put a bullet in his brain now, she would be safe from him forever. She raised the gun.

_Just pull the trigger, girl. Come on, you can do it. _

Her finger twitched on the trigger, nearly going off. She knew that it was the best option, to shoot this evil pervert that had caused so many problems in this world. It would solve more problems than cause them.  
_I've killed walkers before. It shouldn't be any different for people, should it?_  
She couldn't answer herself, and she reluctantly lowered the gun.

_Coward._

She wasn't a killer, not like that. She would just have to hurry up and get out of the woods before he woke up.

_You never know, you might change your mind if he finds you again._

She took off, hoping that the walkers approaching from afar would finish off for her.

* WD * WD *

Sam looked up at the sound of the door opening, smiling at the sight of Phillip. He looked scared and lonely, and for a while he just stood in the doorway looking down at his shoes. He sniffed loudly, eventually looking up at the man in the bed. "Hi."  
"Hi." Sam beckoned for him to come sit down on the edge of the bed, which he did.

"How are you feeling?" said Phillip, trying to sound positive but failing. Sam gasped in pain suddenly, clutching his leg and making it worse. Phillip leaned forward, knowing that he couldn't help at all, but wanting to so badly.  
"I'm fine, I'm fine," he said, regaining his composure. "Don't worry about me. How are _you_ feeling?"  
"I'm fine, too. Rita knows where Eileen's being taken, so she's working on that with Lenny. Apart from that, walkers have surrounded the house, trying to break in, we've got a vicious killer tied up downstairs and you're bleeding to death. Just fine." He nearly started crying, but he just managed to stop himself. "I'm out of my depth here; I don't know what to do."

Sam smiled. "You'll be fine, I know it."  
"How can you know that?"  
"You're a smart, resourceful kid. Was it not you who rescued Karen and I from a gang of ruthless kidnappers?"  
"Yeah, but that didn't work out so well, because now Karen's dead."  
"How did you –"  
"I saw the body when I came in. It's okay, I know."

Sam slapped his thigh in a friendly way. "Then you have to live for the both of us. We all know that I'm not making it out of here alive, and that's okay, because as long as you're okay, I'll take whatever comes with a smile. Karen cared for you, even though she didn't show it much. Everyone cared for you. Especially Rita. Look after her and she'll look after you."  
"What about you? Don't you care for me as well?"  
"Of course I do, Phillip. But I'm not going to be around for much longer, so I want you to be in good hands. Don't separate from the group. Ever. Survival is a team game now. It always was."  
Phillip started crying, gripping his friend's hand tightly. He nodded at whatever he said, listening intently.

Sam gasped again, again shrugging off the sympathy and composing himself. "Right, your best chance of escape is through the bathroom window. It leads onto the roof, which you can walk across carefully and climb down the drainpipe. Rita told me about it," he added at the look of confusion from Phillip. "So when they get in, you can climb down and get away quickly before they see you.  
"But where do we go from there?"  
"Follow Lenny's decision. He's a good leader and you should trust him. He'll probably recommend going back to camp, because the car is still there. There will only be five of you, so you can all fit in. But I have a warning."

"Yeah?"  
"This base you're all going to is dangerous. Don't assume you have to go there because Eileen is there. There will be bad people there and I don't want you to get hurt. So be careful, alright?"  
"Yeah, ok-"

Just then there was a huge smashing sound, and there was a shout from downstairs.  
"That's your cue, Phillip," said Sam, trying to sound optimistic. "I know you'll be okay."  
"I'll miss you," replied Phillip tearfully.  
"And I'll miss you. But it's time to move, so… I guess it's goodbye."

Phillip let go of Sam's hand. "Goodbye."  
He left the room, shutting the door behind him.

* WD * WD *

"Another window's gone!" shouted Victor, who was slicing at arms reaching through the window with his knife. The walker's squealed in pain, withdrawing their arms, only for others to take their place. Jessica ran to help him, having left her position in the basement. Lenny took the hint. "Okay then," he said to Rita, "we can do this later. Let's just get out of here first."  
"The bathroom window is our best shot," she replied, seeing Phillip climb down the stairs in tears. She would have asked him what was wrong, but the timing wasn't great.

There was another crashing sound, but it wasn't from one of the windows. They all heard Rita gasp as a thick arm wrapped around her neck. Lenny turned to see loose wires scattered on the floor around the overturned chair, and Hugh holding Rita's gun to her head, backing towards the door leading to the basement.

"One move and she's dead," Hugh snarled menacingly, feeling the old woman struggle in his grip. "So much for prisoner, huh? Those wires weren't exactly difficult to break out of. Where's rope when you need it?" No one replied. Victor and Jessica hadn't heard; too busy hacking at walkers trying to get inside. Phillip and Lenny just stared in shock and defeat.

"Take me to the bathroom, then," ordered Hugh to Lenny. "Any tricks and you're both dead."  
Lenny saw a moving shape behind Hugh and Rita, instantly knowing who it was. He had to distract him until the right moment.  
"How do you think this will work, Hugh? You just carry a hostage through a window and walk off with her into the night?"  
"What else am I supposed to do? You guys weren't exactly going to let me go, and my 'spy' over here won't cause too much hassle. She's just a frail little woman, aren't you?"  
Rita was unable to reply as her face was slowly changing colour from oxygen deprivation.

Another window smashed, but Lenny took no notice. "She's much more than that."  
"Oh yeah, she is! She's your only way of finding Eileen, so maybe if I just kill her now, then you'll no longer be a problem." He pushed his gun against Rita's head so much that it caused her to wince. "Oh sorry, does that hurt? Then you'll love this…" He moved the gun away, ready to smack her with it. His hand was ready to fling back into her face…

…when the reanimated Karen jumped him and sunk her teeth into his neck.

Hugh screamed in agony, and Rita elbowed him the stomach. He released her, and she pushed him down the steps into the basement, tumbling over Karen until they were both at the bottom of the steps, with her on top of him. She grabbed his arm and bit into it, and he screamed again. Rita slammed the door shut, collapsing against it.

Lenny ran over to her. "Are you alright?"  
"Yeah, I just need a second," she gasped, regaining her breath. Lenny smiled.  
"Good of my wife to still be looking out for us," he chuckled. "Now come on, let's get out of here, shall we?"  
"Gladly."

Just then, the front door burst open, the wooden planks flying off their hinges and crashing to the floor. The walkers poured in.


	28. Chapter 28: Chaos

"Go!" shouted Lenny, pretty much dragging Rita along with him as the others hurtled up the stairs. They just made it up the stairs as walkers chased after them, powering up the stairs with hunger driving them. Phillip barged the bathroom door open, waiting for everyone else to enter. As Lenny and Rita charged through the door after Victor and Jessica, he slammed the door shut, pressing up against the door with the assistance of the others. The force of the walkers was stronger than they expected, nearly sending them crashing to the floor. But they held firm, feeling incredible strain.

"Rita, get the window open!"  
Rita, being the only one not against the door, turned the handle on the window and forced it open, but it jammed halfway. "Shit," she proclaimed, pushing against it with all her strength. She went to get her gun from the back of her pants, to find nothing. Hugh had held it tightly in his hand as she pushed him down the stairs. "Lenny, gun!"  
He retrieved his own gun and chucked it to her. She shot the lock, causing it to snap and throw the window back against the outside wall of the house. "It's open!"

Just at that moment, they could hear Sam's screams from the bedroom, and Phillip started shaking with terror. There was another jolt and the door was nearly thrown open. "Is there a lock on this door?" asked Lenny between short breaths, directing the question to Phillip, who was the one closest to the handle of the door.  
"Yeah, right here!" he replied, trying to lock it but finding himself unable to. "The door's still partially open, we need to push harder!"

The four of them tried as hard as they could to close the door, but it was too difficult. Rita joined in the struggle, leaning against the door with her hands pressed firmly against the top of it. They would only get one chance, so Phillip kept his hand on the lock, ready to turn it.  
"Okay, we've all got to push extra hard at the same time! On three! One, two… three!"  
They all pushed as hard as they could against the door, and Phillip turned the lock. The force against them was suddenly gone, as the lock was now taking the weight of the walkers. They all breathed a sigh of relief, but the way that the door was shuddering violently, it was clear that they didn't have much time.

"Quick, get through the window!" ordered Lenny to the other four. Rita climbed through first, quickly followed by Phillip. They slid slightly on the roof slats, but they moved to the side, holding onto the slats as they crossed. Jessica went next, doing the same as them. Victor and Lenny were the only two left.  
"Go on then!" said Lenny, gesturing for the other man to go first. Victor shook his head.  
"You go first, and don't dawdle!"  
Lenny knew that there was no point arguing with him, because it would be time wasted that could result in both of them dying. He quickly climbed through the window, imagining what was about to happen.

As Victor climbed through the window, the door burst open.

Victor was half out of the window, but a walker grabbed hold of his leg, holding him tight. Lenny grabbed his arm and pulled him as hard as he could, but more walkers started to grab at him until he was slowly being pulled back through the window. They were going to win.

"Let go!" shouted Victor, knowing that there was no hope. "Let go of me and get out of here!"  
"No! That's not happening! Don't be ridiculous!" No one else needed to die. But his grip was slipping; he couldn't hold on much longer without being pulled in with him. Jessica saw what was happening, rushing towards them and nearly falling off the roof in the process. She dived at Victor, grabbing hold of his arm with one hand and withdrawing a knife with the other.  
"What are you doing?" asked Victor, already having accepted his fate.

"Saving your life!" she replied, leaning forwards so that she was pretty much through the window. In a completely unexpected turn of events, she started hacking at the arms of the walkers holding Victor, screaming a battle cry as she made them recoil in agony. The struggle reversed so that the walkers were losing, until eventually the walkers were stuck behind the corpses of their comrades, and there was only one left holding onto her husband.  
"Get the fuck off my husband!" she yelled, driving the knife between its eyes. It let go of Victor's leg, and Lenny flew backwards, toppling down the side of the roof, still holding onto Victor, who was falling with him.

Jessica tried and failed to grab her husband before he and Lenny slid off the side of the roof, falling to the ground below.

"Victor!" she screamed in horror, not able to believe that she had lost him after that struggle. "Oh god no, Victor!"  
Rita and Phillip had watched the whole thing with fear, realising that it was just the three of them now. They were all alone, and they were still being pursued by walkers. They could see them trying to climb through the window.  
"Jessica, we have to move," said Rita sadly, and Jessica knew she was right. She climbed along the roof after Rita and Phillip, her tears shrouding her vision.

* WD * WD *

Lenny wanted to shout out in pain, but he was unable to do anything. He just lay there, not entirely sure if he was dead or not. There was nothing to hear, nothing to see. But his eyes opened, eventually, and his hearing slowly started to come back. He wished it hadn't.  
He could hear someone screaming from above him, and the sound of feet slapping against the ground near the screaming. But that didn't matter. What he could see was what concerned him.

His vision took a while to fully focus, but he could make out an unmoving body in his site. He knew that it was Victor, and that it should have been him who had left the bathroom last. Now another person was dead, and yet every time he lived, forced to suffer the consequences. He wished he had been the first to be killed, because then he wouldn't have had to watch everyone die around him.

His vision had re-focused at last, and he was right; there was Victor, motionless on the ground. He wanted to run over to him and help him, to somehow bring him back to life, but he was immobilised by his own non-fatal injuries. Nothing felt broken, but it would sure hurt for a while. He had gotten off better than Victor, at least.

As if deliberately to prove him wrong at that precise moment, Victor opened his eyes.

Lenny didn't know how to react. He couldn't get up and cheer triumphantly as would be his usual reaction, so he just… laughed. Laughed as hard as his damaged body would let him laugh. Victor started to laugh too, both of them in sheer disbelief that they were still alive. Victor was crying, unable to pretend that he was some hardened tough man anymore. He had been scared, he was in so much pain… but he was alive. That was cause for half-heartened celebration.

Feeling returned for Lenny, and he had mixed feelings about it. Sure, he was happy to be able to move his fingers again, but it hurt so much just to breathe. He had most definitely been winded by the fall. He looked up at the roof, guessing that they must have fallen roughly fifteen feet. It could have been worse, but that didn't mean it still wasn't dangerous. He had nearly landed on his head. He could have broken his neck. All these near-death experiences were driving him insane.

"Are you okay?" he rasped, suddenly feeling thirstier than ever.  
"Yeah… I'm fine," replied Victor with similar difficulty. "But my leg hurts like hell."  
Lenny jumped to the conclusion that it was broken. He looked down at Victor's leg, and with relief couldn't see any bone sticking out grotesquely, like he had imagined in a state of overreaction. That didn't mean it wasn't broken, though. He managed to crawl over to him, running his fingers along the leg. When Victor tried to recoil in pain and failed, he feared the worst. It was highly possible that his leg was broken, but there had to be some possibility that he could be okay.

They lay there, too weak to get up, left to hope that they would be okay, while their friends scrambled across a rooftop, pursued by walkers.


	29. Chapter 29: Suffer

More and walkers poured out of the window, sliding across the roof and scrambling after their prey. Some were less fortunate and slid right off the roof to the ground below, but most of them held firm, maintaining their grip on the uneven slats and making their way after Jessica, Phillip and Rita. Soon there were dozens of them on the roof, more arriving with every second. Their prey didn't have much time before the entire roof was overrun with them.

Phillip was in the lead, panting and crying at the same time as he powered forward, terrified that he would slip and fall to his death. Even if the fall didn't kill him, the walkers would shortly afterwards. He watched the surface below him carefully, knowing that it could all go horribly wrong in an instant, just like it had a minute ago.

Sam had told him to trust Lenny's decisions, but Lenny was gone now, leaving just the three of them fighting for their lives. At least he still had Rita and Jessica. Rita – apparently – cared for him most, and Jessica had just proven that she was a force to be reckoned with. He wouldn't want to get on her bad side, especially now, given that she had just watched her husband fall off a roof and been left with the only option of running away from his killers. She was bound to lose it soon, and it wouldn't be pretty.

"There!" shouted Rita, not able to point at what she was shouting about for fear of losing her balance. Phillip knew exactly what she meant, faintly seeing the rung of what was presumably a ladder. He twisted as he reached it, throwing himself onto it and swivelling round it. He slid down it and dropped to the ground below, tripping and falling onto his side. As he got up, he caught sight of the trap doors being flung open from the inside; that could only mean one thing.

"Quick, this way!" he whispered as loud as he dared to Rita, who had just reached the bottom of the ladder, and Jessica who was currently making her descent. He sprinted off into the woods, and Rita followed half-heartedly, waiting for Jessica to catch up. She did and they followed the boy into the trees. The walkers attempted to climb down the ladder and ended up falling to the ground halfway there, but they got up anyway and chased after them.

It was suddenly much darker with trees surrounding them, so Phillip was completely helpless as he lost his footing and tripped, tumbling into a ditch. Rita heard him fall and slowly followed him down with Jessica just behind her. She helped him up, but they realised that they had unintentionally found a hiding place. They went prone, going as silent as they could, waiting for the walkers to pass, terrified that they would be spotted.

They were difficult to make out as anything more but silhouettes, but they were easy enough to see. They passed in the masses, far more than they had thought. Not one seemed to look in their direction, or even venture near the same path as them and tumble down the hill where they were cautiously hiding. Hundreds and hundreds passed, making that unsettling shuffling sound and seeming to take hours to finally disappear from sight. Finally, they were gone, and no more could be seen. Their footsteps could still be heard, slowly getting quieter as they chased thin air further into the woods.

The three of them took deep breaths, feeling that they hadn't been able to do that in a long time. For now, they were alright, but there was still little hope. Phillip got up quickly and peeked at the cottage while leaning over the top of the hill he had tumbled down. His fears had been confirmed.

Rita had sensed his worry. "What's wrong?" she asked carefully, not sure if it was because of all the death, if he had seen another walker, or if it was something worse.  
Phillip adopted a grave expression, not that there was enough light to see properly. "I saw the trap door open," he said. There was silence for a moment, all of them knowing what that meant. Jessica got up, clutching her knife and climbing back up the hill.

"What are you doing?" said Rita, not wanting to be too forceful with a woman who had just recently been widowed.  
"As if you have to ask. I'm gonna kill that bastard." She made no further comment, and neither Phillip nor Rita went to stop her. There would be no convincing her. She wanted that man's head on a stick. They watched her go, too scared to move.

* WD * WD *

Lenny heard footsteps behind him, assuming that a walker had come to finish them off. He reached for his gun, sadly remembering that he had given it to Rita in the bathroom. He looked at Victor, who had closed his eyes and limited his breathing, supposedly feigning death. Lenny adopted the same idea, hoping that it would somehow. The footsteps stopped against his back. There were no sounds of groaning, like a walker made. There was silence for a moment, and then the figure spoke. "We meet again."

Even feigning death wouldn't do him any good, Lenny realised. Regardless of whether or not he had perished from the fall, the figure standing above him would mutilate his corpse in a sadistic rage anyway. At least, that was the impression Hugh had given before. Still, he tried not to move, feeling fear overwhelm him.

"There's no use pretending, Lenny. I know you're alive. For now, at least."  
In a surprise move, Hugh grabbed hold of him and picked him up, taking him off his feet. He charged at the wall of the cottage, slamming the weakened Lenny against it. He could no longer fake death, gasping in pain and glimpsing his attacker. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Hugh's neck was almost entirely dark red from blood seeping out of his bite wound, which was larger than expected. It went all the way down the side of his neck, meaning that he didn't have much more than a few hours before he succumbed to the disease, given the severity of the wound. But despite his clear agony, he was determined to take down as many people as he could with him.

Lenny wanted to fight back, but he was too weak from the fall. He was forced to endure several more slams against the wall and some punches to the gut and face. He was left battered and bloody from it. Hugh had a huge smirk on his face, trying to conceal his pain with arrogance. "The tables have turned, boy. Hope you enjoyed our time together."

With that, he pressed his huge forearm against Lenny's throat, pushing as hard as he could. Lenny writhed and feebly hit at his soon-to-be killer, unable to breathe. He couldn't break free, so he waited for death to relieve him of the suffering.


	30. Chapter 30: Finale

Victor watched uselessly as Hugh brutalised the equally-weak Lenny. As the brutish giant placed his forearm across Lenny's throat like a steel beam, asphyxiating him, he knew that it was only a matter of time before his comrade ceased movement, and then the giant would turn on him, most likely unconvinced that he was deceased.

He knew that he had a gun in his back pocket, feeling it dig into the small of his back. The trouble was getting it. He could barely move, suffering from intense pain that plagued him. He was imprisoned of sorts, by pain. He took it slowly, but it was as fast as he could move without crying out and alerting Lenny's would-be murderer of his presence. By the time his fingers could only just reach the gun, Lenny's face had turned purple from the lack of oxygen. He didn't have long left.

Victor's fingers managed to wrap around the handle, but it required so much more effort to drag it out of the pocket. As he watched Lenny go limp, he rushed himself, moving too fast and causing himself intense pain. He managed to stifle the shout with a short breath, but he knew that it wasn't enough. In a terrifying moment, Hugh's head cocked towards him, and he grinned his horrible grin. He released Lenny, who flopped to the floor like a sack of potatoes, coughing and drawing in much-needed breath.

The pain didn't matter now; he had to be quick. He had the gun in his hand at last, but he couldn't raise it. Hugh walked towards him slowly, ignorant of the threat of the grounded man before him. He stopped, stood above him by his feet.

"Didn't think you had made it," the brute said, sounding a little disappointed. His grin dropped and turned into a malevolent deadpan expression. "You'll wish you had done once I'm through with you."  
Victor knew what was coming, but he was prepared. As Hugh bent down over him, raising his fist to strike, Victor summoned the strength to raise the gun and point it at his attacker.

Hugh was clearly surprised, but he remained calm. "Go on then. I'm a dead man anyway. Get on with it. Shoot me!"  
Victor didn't hesitate. The nightmare – at least this part of it, anyway – was over. He pulled the trigger.

Nothing happened.

Hugh had blinked, preparing for a bullet between the eyes, satisfied at the clicking sound that represented an empty clip. "Someone forgot to reload. Shame for you, I guess." He took the gun from the exhausted man below him, chucking it in the direction of the trees. "On the bright side, we get more time together."

Victor couldn't believe it. With just one bullet he could have rid the world of this tyrant, if only he had checked his clip before he had set off for the cottage. He threw his head back in anger, ignoring the excruciating pain. He had failed himself. Jessica. Lenny. Everyone who was still alive and everyone who had died at the hands of the man about to kill him.

Hugh didn't say another word. He just balled his hand up into a fist, raised it, and threw it into the face of the dishevelled who had given up trying to fight back.

* WD * WD *

Jessica watched from the side of the cottage, witnessing her husband raise a gun to Hugh's head, amazed that he was still alive. She was so hopeful, anticipating the gunshot. But there was nothing. She knew then that it was down to her. She would have to do it, to save them all. As Hugh straddled her husband and delivered several strikes to his face, she knew it was her only chance to get him. Her husband was in danger; she had to help. She crept over slowly, knife at the ready in her hand.

His back was to her, and with every step that she got closer; she found breathing more difficult, mostly because she was scared of making a sound that could alert her target to her presence. Was she really able to do this? Could she still actually kill a human being? Yes, she told herself, not truly convinced. Under the circumstances, it was justified. She had to do it. She had to kill Hugh. She was right behind him, raising her knife slowly, working herself up to do it.

But she was too late. Hugh leaped to his feet from his position on Victor and grabbed her wrist hard.

She struggled, but he was much stronger than her. "You think I didn't hear you coming?" he said smugly, squeezing harder and making her cry out in pain. She fought back, driving her knee between his legs. He grunted in pain, but kept his grip on her wrist. She attacked him on whatever way she could think of: she clawed at his eyes, punched him in the face, continued to hit him in the crotch, but he wouldn't budge. While she was hurting him considerably, he seemed to just be getting angrier.

He tightened his grip on her wrist even more that he nearly popped a vein. As she cried out again, he used his other hand to punch her in the face. He let go of her wrist as she fell to the floor. The knife bounced slightly as it hit the ground. He kicked it away, not needing it to finish her off.

"Even with the odds in your favour," he said whilst mounting her, "I'm still unstoppable." He locked his hands around her throat, squeezing her carotid arteries with intensity. "You've got no one to save you now, madam. No weapons, no pathetic husband or grieving widower to rescue you. You're mine now."

Jessica gasped, completely unable to breathe. Already she could see black spots appearing in her vision. She tugged at his wrists, but she knew it was no use; she just needed to breathe again. She hit at him with her sapping strength, but he was immovable, crushing her windpipe with ease.

This was it for her. She couldn't escape his grip, slowly feeling her consciousness slip away. She drifted between life and death, ready to cross the irreversible border. As she closed her eyes, she briefly heard some rapid footsteps and saw Hugh look up at the sound of it, but she succumbed to the oxygen deprivation before she could find out what had happened.

* WD * WD *

When she opened her eyes again, she felt sure that she was dead. But then she heard voices, exclamations of pain. Rubbing her bruised – but now untouched – throat, she sat up, seeing immediately what happened. She was most definitely not dead. But the person in front of her was.

Hugh's legs rested just in front of hers, showing that he had fallen backwards and collapsed to the floor. He had a shocked look in his face… and a knife sticking out of his forehead. She instantly suspected that it had been Lenny who had killed him, so she was just slightly surprised when she saw him slumped by the wall, having not moved from where he had been earlier. Victor was also unmoving, and she couldn't have subconsciously done it herself. Heavy breathing behind her caused her to turn around and eye his killer.

Phillip stood there, almost completely still, staring at his hand, presumably the one he had been holding the knife in. Blood trickled down his hand to his wrist, and he wiped his face, which also came back with blood. He sensed a pair of eyes on him and looked up at Jessica. He looked so upset, so vulnerable. She looked the same, because nothing had really changed. They had all thought that killing Hugh would solve their problems, but they had neglected the bigger issue: the new world was to blame. Nothing had changed for the better, except that they got to live a little longer in the world that they all fantasised about escaping.

Jessica got up, slowly approaching the fragile Phillip. Initially he backed away, but as tears made their appearance on his face, he let her hold him. They stood rigid in an embrace, not uttering a single word.

Rita appeared, rushing over, about to ask what the hell had happened. She stopped herself as she locked eyes with Hugh's body, silently coming to her own conclusion of the events that took place. Seeing Victor stir, she rushed over, walking round the body in irrational fear that he would suddenly come alive and grab her ankle. She knelt down beside Victor, understanding that Jessica was comforting Phillip but completely ignorant of her husband's well-being.

"Are you okay?" asked Rita. Victor coughed before answering, with clear pain being expressed in his face. "I'm fine, I'm fine. Where's…" He caught sight of the corpse. "Well, that answers my question," he said, surprised but not particularly emotive about it. "Is everyone else okay?"  
"I haven't checked Lenny yet, but Jessica and Phillip are just over there. Jessica's knife is on the floor. I think Phillip…" She wasn't comfortable saying it.

Lenny came to, opening his eyes and looking more like he'd had a drunken fight rather than fallen off a roof and nearly been strangled to death. He spotted Hugh before he could ask where he'd gone, but he didn't feel as thrilled about it as he wanted to. He just sighed and wiped his eyes, feeling sore.

Rita and Victor looked at him, not sure what to say. Everything felt so delicate, as if interrupting the silence would cause nothing but more trouble. He spoke for all of them. "Who killed him then?"  
Phillip gently moved away from Jessica, signalling for her to let him go. He stared at Lenny as an answer.

Lenny nodded in understanding. "You saved our lives. Thank you."  
"He killed Calvin. And Sam. And probably caused everyone else's deaths by just showing up at the camp. But he's gone now. He can't hurt us anymore."  
Nobody objected, all knowing that they were sort of happy that their tormentor was gone forever. Phillip waited for someone else to talk, and when they didn't, he trudged off round the side of the cottage. Jessica went after him, but Rita stopped her.

"He needs time to adjust to his actions," she said kindly, not wanting to make the other woman feel like she was being ordered to stay away. "When he's ready, he'll come back."  
Jessica knew that Rita was right, smiling feebly at her. She went to sit with her husband, wrapping his arm around her and resting her head on his shoulder.

Rita slumped against the wall with Lenny, who was still recovering. "What now?" she asked, not sure if he would be up to answering any questions at the moment. Politely, he responded.  
"Get back to camp, stay there for the night or a few, then I'll drive down into the city to this 'base' that you have yet to identify, we storm in all guns blazing and miraculously find Eileen and…"  
"What after that?"  
"I… I have absolutely no idea."

Rita sighed. "Your plan is terrible," she said matter-of-factly. "But it's all we have left. I'll go down into the city with you and lead you to base, and then we'll work out our move from there."  
"You'll really do it?"  
She smiled at him. "I haven't got much left to live for, so why not? Besides, I fear for that girl. We need to find her."  
"But what if she's not there?"  
"Then we keep looking. The others might not feel the same way, but I'll stick by you, no matter what."

Lenny smiled at her, suddenly seeing a bright light on her face. The Sun was up at last, finally making it morning. It was the most inspiration they were going to get.

"At least the weather's on our side," said Rita cheerfully. Lenny chuckled, resting his head against the wall as the Sun quickly swarmed the woods with light.

* WD * WD *

Eileen walked along the wide road leading into the city. She had left the woods behind her roughly an hour ago, weaving between abandoned cars and rotting corpses that littered the highway. Grant's gun was held firmly in her hand, ready to be used. She would shoot the next time she saw him, she knew it.

There were several shapes several hundred metres ahead of her, presumably walkers, although their postures and stillness convinced her otherwise. She didn't stop, instead confidently continuing the obstacle course until they noticed her, all turning their heads at roughly the same time. She knew then that they weren't walkers, but that made no difference to her. From what she had learnt, humans could be just as much a threat as the ravenous freaks that roamed the land.

They didn't move, instead waiting to come to her. They didn't draw weapons or anything like that. They just stared, seeming to have recognised her. That wasn't too much of a surprise for her, because as she saw their faces up closer, she realised that she recognised them as well. That didn't prevent from her from getting close enough to them to have conversation. She stopped roughly ten metres away from them, gun tight in her hand.

There were three of them, two men and a woman. They didn't seem to be carrying guns of any sort, but each one of them had a knife in hand in case of a surprise walker ambush. That relaxed her slightly, knowing that she had the advantage with her gun.  
"Hello," said the woman in a deceiving friendly voice, "my name's Kara. You must be Eileen."

Kara sounded so patronising that Eileen just wanted to shoot her then. She didn't want to know how they had found her, so she kept silent, refusing to converse with these people.  
Kara guessed that she wasn't going to reply, so she continued. "We've all been looking for you. Your father's been so worried, and asked us all to go out and look for you. Have you been on your own this whole time?"  
It was useless asking questions, because she wasn't going to reply.  
"Alright then, I understand if you don't want to talk right now. Would you like to come with us now? Nod your head if you want to."

Eileen did nothing, waiting to see if the woman in front of her would eventually show her true colours and threaten her outright to come back. Her two associates didn't speak, also looking like they were anticipating her rage.  
Kara's lip twitched, and for just a moment she looked frustrated, but she tried to cover it up with a smile. "Please come with us, Eileen. You'll be safer if you come with us."

"I'm much safer out here than I will ever be with my father!" yelled Eileen, surprising herself. Her plan to give the silent treatment had failed pretty quickly, but it wouldn't make a difference anyway. She was only going to get away from these people by doing one thing, something that she wasn't sure she would be able to do.  
Kara groaned; her positive facial expression dropping. "We've walked a long way, just to find you. Don't waste our time, please. We're not leaving here without y-"  
"I remember you."

Kara showed irritation at being interrupted, but moved past it. "And how's that?" she asked.  
"I had a good view from my window in the room that I was _locked _up in. I could see the gates, so I used to watch people go in and go out. Only one time, maybe a few weeks ago or something, I swear I saw you, and a crowd of people watching. There was this old woman who you kept pushing. She shouted something at you, and you hit her in the face. She then got kicked out of the place, left to survive on her own. So cut the crap, pretending to care about me. You're a bully, just like everyone else there. I'm not going back there and you can't make me."

Kara sighed, biting her lip. "You're coming with me, whether you like it or not."  
"Try me."  
She raised her eyebrow. "Oh, I will. Finn, grab her."  
The one called Finn stepped forward, heading towards her. Eileen was having none of it. "One more step and I'll shoot you," she told him, raising the gun. He stopped, believing that she would do it. Kara was fuming.  
"She probably can't even fire a gun, stop being a pussy and grab her!"  
Finn shook his head. "No way, she looks serious."

Kara pushed past him, stepping in front of where Eileen was aiming. "Little girls aren't allowed weapons, because they do stupid things and people get hurt. So you'll give me that weapon or I will have to forcefully take it from you."  
"I don't listen to bullies."  
"Sometimes you should. I've given you a chance, so I guess what happens next can be excu-"

Eileen fired.

The gunshot was painfully loud in the relatively quiet surroundings, tearing into Kara and throwing her to the floor. Blood splattered Eileen in the face, but she ignored it. She couldn't get distracted.

Finn and the other man both looked as petrified as the other. They backed away, fixated on Kara, who was still moving faintly, soon to be dead. Then they looked up at the teenage girl pointing the gun at them. Eileen briefly glanced at the dying woman in front of her, realising just what she had done.

_I just killed somebody. I'm… I'm becoming my father._

She lowered the gun and leant against a car in shock, keeping her eye on the two men in case they made a move towards her.

_It should have been Grant. Not Kara. Grant deserved this, not her._

"Go!" she shouted at Finn and his friend. "Fuck off and never come back!" They didn't hesitate, sprinting in the opposite direction as fast as they could. She dropped to the ground with her back against the car, sobbing.

_I'm a murderer. A dirty, good-for-nothing murderer. _

She composed herself, knowing that she had to flee soon before the walkers got here. She was lost on the outskirts of a city that she had tried so hard to escape, yet every instinct was telling her to keep going, that it was the best place to go.

She took a deep breath, taking one last look at Kara, who was still coughing and wheezing. The woman looked at her like she was the reincarnation of the devil, or as if she were her father. She knew what she had to do.

She raised the gun at Kara once more, and fired.


End file.
